Search Results (5,766)

This article asks how Basarwa communities of Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) came to be represented as populations requiring protection, development, conservation management and relocation, and what those shifts meant for land, gender and cosmological life. It presents a critical genealogical review of a purposively assembled corpus of 45 legal, policy, ethnographic, historical and theological sources. The analysis traces four formations: colonial protection, post-independence development and sedentarisation, conservation-led relocation, and rights-based recognition accompanied by administrative restriction. CKGR-specific evidence documents the loss of access to land, water, hunting and services even after important court victories. Evidence on gender is narrower. Studies of New Xade and other Botswana San communities suggest that relocation could devalue women’s foraging knowledge and reduce autonomy, but comparative research also shows that sedentarisation alone does not determine gender inequality. Missionary discourse is therefore treated as part of a longer representational archive, not as a proven direct cause of contemporary relocation policy. The article argues that “exile in ancestral lands” is best understood as an interpretive description of material and relational estrangement. A decolonial theological reading makes visible the moral and spiritual significance of land while avoiding claims that all Basarwa communities share a single cosmology. Full article

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is becoming embedded in adult professional education, yet its capacity to accelerate academic work may also remove cognitive processes that underpin professional judgement. This qualitative study explored how educators working in Dutch academic medical settings perceive GenAI’s implications for students’ critical thinking and how they believe it should be integrated into medical curricula. Seventeen educators from Dutch academic medical settings participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed thematically using a mixed inductive–deductive approach informed by the Technology Acceptance Model and the Paul–Elder critical thinking framework. Three themes were identified: educational value and efficiency; threats to independent critical thinking; and conditions for responsible integration. Educators valued GenAI for personalised learning, writing support, research assistance, accessibility, simulation, and administrative efficiency. However, they associated low-friction use with cognitive offloading, weaker source appraisal, reduced information filtering, possible erosion of foundational knowledge, and difficulties verifying authentic student understanding. Participants proposed AI literacy, transparent use, institutionally governed models, comparative human–AI tasks, simulation, staged access, and AI-free oral or in-class assessment. The findings suggest that adult professional education should design GenAI as co-intelligence rather than cognitive substitution, preserving productive friction while verifying unassisted competence. Full article

Background: Digital innovations have transformed health professions education, with podcasting emerging as a flexible, learner-centered educational modality. Podcasts support asynchronous, mobile, and self-directed learning, enabling access to educational content beyond traditional classroom environments. However, evidence regarding their effectiveness, integration strategies, and impact on educational and practice outcomes remains fragmented. Aim/Objective: This review aimed to map the existing literature on the use of podcasting in nursing and midwifery education and continuing professional development (CPD), identify how podcasts are used, summarize reported benefits and limitations, and highlight gaps for future research. Design: Scoping review. Methods: A scoping review was conducted and reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. Eligibility criteria were developed using the Population–Concept–Context (PCC) framework to define the review scope. A comprehensive literature search was performed across PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, CINAHL, Google Scholar, ProQuest, and OpenGrey to identify studies published in English between January 2005 and December 2024. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts, and full-text articles against the predefined eligibility criteria. Data were extracted using a standardized charting form, and the included studies were synthesized using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis to map the characteristics and educational applications. They reported outcomes of podcasting in nursing and midwifery education. Results: Twenty-four studies were included. Podcasting was associated with enhanced learning flexibility, learner engagement, and knowledge retention in both academic and CPD contexts. It supported asynchronous and self-directed learning while reinforcing key concepts. Challenges included variable content quality, limited integration of assessment, and scarce evidence linking podcast use to clinical outcomes. Conclusions: Podcasting is a promising adjunct to nursing and midwifery education and CPD. Formal integration into curricula and professional development frameworks is recommended. Further research should focus on longitudinal outcomes, low- and middle-income settings, and impacts on clinical practice and interprofessional learning. Full article

Statistical literacy is essential for biomedical researchers, yet doctoral training in applied biostatistics and reproducible data analysis remains limited despite the growing accessibility of open-source tools such as R. This retrospective observational programme evaluation examined three consecutive editions (2021–2023) of an intensive three-day doctoral course in applied biostatistics with R, delivered at the Instituto Maimónides de Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba (IMIBIC) and the Universidad de Córdoba (UCO). Each edition enrolled 15 doctoral students with a 5:1 student-to-instructor ratio and used a problem-based curriculum of nine modules supported by a purpose-written open-access textbook. End-of-course examination performance was described using a ten-item multiple-choice examination; because the examination was not psychometrically equated across editions, score distributions are reported descriptively by cohort rather than used to infer cross-edition differences in learning or competence. Satisfaction was evaluated across four ACSA-aligned domains and was descriptively high in all editions; in the combined within-participant analysis, the Teaching Team domain was rated higher than the other domains. Self-reported theoretical and practical knowledge ratings increased descriptively from pre- to post-course within each edition. The 2021 ratings were reconstructed retrospectively from qualitative responses and were therefore not pooled or directly compared with the directly scaled 2022–2023 ratings. Qualitative feedback highlighted the theory–practice balance and low student-to-instructor ratio, with longer duration as the principal suggestion. The findings support the feasibility and acceptability of this intensive R-based training model, but the uncontrolled design, non-equated examination, small samples, and self-reported outcomes preclude claims about learning improvement, causal effectiveness, or durable competence. Full article

Game meat is increasingly discussed as a nutrient-rich alternative source of animal protein, although its consumption remains constrained by limited availability, consumer familiarity, and practical or perceptual barriers. This study assessed attitudes, knowledge, perceptions, and consumption behaviours related to game meat among respondents recruited through an online convenience survey in Romania. Following exclusion of three respondents who did not meet the predefined age criterion, 640 participants were included in the analysis. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) with exploratory clustering, and multivariable binary logistic regression. Overall, 75.8% of respondents (95% CI [72.3–78.9]) reported having previously consumed game meat, although consumption was predominantly infrequent. Having family members or friends involved in hunting showed the strongest adjusted association with previous consumption (OR = 4.81, 95% CI [2.59–8.94]), while older age and higher self-rated information were also associated with higher adjusted odds of previous consumption. Exploratory MCA-based clustering suggested three broad respondent profiles characterised by differing levels of familiarity, previous consumption, purchasing knowledge, and perceptions of game meat. Among non-consumers, 50.0% reported willingness to try game meat in the future, although the corresponding multivariable model had limited explanatory power. The principal reported barriers among non-consumers were lack of opportunity (63.2%), discomfort with the idea of eating wild animals (43.4%), and ethical concerns regarding hunting (34.2%). These findings highlight potential considerations for producers, retailers, and policy makers, including market accessibility, consumer information, culinary guidance, and transparent communication regarding product origin and safety. Given the young, student-dominated convenience sample, the findings primarily reflect the perspectives of younger, highly educated respondents in Romania. Full article

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers preventing primary care providers from performing regular oral cancer screening, and to understand the challenges they face in integrating oral cancer screening into their annual examination protocols. Method: Sequential exploratory mixed methods were used. Both qualitative and quantitative data from primary care providers working at Nebraska Medicine were obtained. One-on-one in-depth interviews were performed to identify primary care providers’ perceptions and challenges in performing oral cancer screening. Themes identified in the qualitative phase guided the development of the survey questionnaire. The survey was emailed to all the primary care providers (n = 100) listed on the publicly accessible Nebraska Medicine website. Results: The response rate was 34%. Approximately 60% of the participants reported currently performing oral cancer screening; however, only 3.8% stated they performed comprehensive oral cancer screening consistently. Forty-eight percent of the providers identified time as the biggest challenge. Over 35.3% indicated they screened patients with a history of tobacco or alcohol use. Conclusions: With the limitations of this exploratory study, approximately half of the participants identified lack of time as their primary challenge in performing oral cancer screening and lack of knowledge as their second main obstacle. Very few performed comprehensive oral cancer screening, with visual examination being the most conducted step. Full article

Laboratories play a critical role in engineering education by bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical applications. Dedicated laboratory stands serve as essential platforms for experiential learning, enabling students to interact directly with real or simulated systems. These stands enable a deeper understanding of complex engineering concepts and, at the same time, support the creation of essential skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and system integration. While physical laboratory stands provide a rich learning experience, their large-scale implementation can be both technically and financially challenging. In this context, virtual laboratory environments based on virtual prototypes offer a valuable complementary approach by improving access to practical learning while providing greater flexibility and reducing implementation costs. This paper presents the development of a virtual laboratory stand implemented using Simscape and designed for use in the teaching process in mechatronics engineering. The developed virtual prototype materializes a Segway-type self-balancing mobile robot and is used as a teaching tool in the lab activity of the control systems course. The educational effectiveness of the proposed virtual laboratory stand was evaluated by comparing students’ perceptions with those of a conventional analytical-model-based laboratory activity. The collected questionnaire data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Mann–Whitney U test. Students using the virtual laboratory reported consistently higher ratings than those using the analytical model, with statistically significant differences observed in three questionnaire items. These findings suggest that the proposed virtual laboratory stand enhances students’ learning experience and provides a valuable complementary approach for teaching control system design in mechatronics. Full article

Background/Objectives: Structured cytopathology reporting systems attach an evidence-based risk of malignancy (ROM) to every diagnostic category for the thyroid, salivary gland, urinary tract, lung and other sites. None exists for the oral cavity, and the ROM of an oral brush cytology category has not, to our knowledge, been reported. Methods: All oral liquid-based cytology specimens accessioned at one tertiary dental hospital between 2015 and 2024 were reviewed; those with a site-concordant histopathological diagnosis obtained within 90 days formed the analytic cohort (n = 137). Cytological reports were recovered from primary laboratory records and assigned to a five-tier ordinal scale. The target condition was malignancy or high-grade dysplasia, and diagnostic indices were calculated at every ordinal threshold with Wilson 95% confidence intervals. Results: ROM rose monotonically: 15.6% (95% CI 8.7–26.4) for negative, 53.3% (30.1–75.2) for atypical favoring reactive, 76.9% (61.7–87.4) for atypical cells of undetermined significance (ACUS), 87.5% (52.9–97.8) for atypical favoring neoplastic and 100% (74.1–100) for malignancy. The ACUS value far exceeded that of the similarly named tier in the thyroid (22%) and salivary gland (30.5%) systems and fell within the range spanned by their suspicious-for-malignancy tiers (74% and 83.8%). Malignancy was never reported in a histologically benign or low-grade lesions. Sensitivity at the ACUS threshold was 25.0% in keratotic against 79.3% in non-keratotic lesions (p = 0.004). Conclusions: These are, to our knowledge, the first category-specific ROM estimates for oral brush cytology, and they identify a nomenclature problem: a category named for the pathologist’s uncertainty carried a risk equivalent to suspicious for malignancy elsewhere; while a negative report was followed by disease in one lesion in six. Any oral reporting system should attach an explicit ROM to each category; our exploratory data further suggest that the surface keratinization of the sampled lesion should be recorded. Full article

Climate change poses growing risks to coffee farming in Uganda. However, households do not adapt to the same degree, and it remains unclear which household resources contribute to differences in adaptation. This study examines the specific household resources associated with climate adaptation among 376 smallholder coffee-farming households across four districts in Southwestern Uganda. Adaptation was measured using a count of adopted practices and a continuous index derived from Principal Component Analysis (PCA), with Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) used as a robustness check. The analysis examined constituent household resources separately to assess whether broad livelihood-capital categories obscure divergent relationships among their components. Household size, knowledge exchange with other farmers, training, and ownership of basic farm tools were the most consistent positive correlates of adaptation. Years of coffee-farming experience, by contrast, showed a negative relationship with adaptation, opposite to the direction observed for household size despite both being classified within the human-capital domain. A composite human-capital specification showed weaker statistical fit than the disaggregated specification. A similar divergence occurred within financial capital: off-farm income showed a positive relationship with adaptation, whereas access to credit did not. Within physical capital, tool ownership was positively related to adaptation, whereas irrigation equipment, owned by only 1.6% of households, was not statistically significant. These findings suggest that policies to strengthen climate adaptation among smallholder coffee farmers should prioritize farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange, training, and access to basic farm tools. Additionally, findings caution against treating broad livelihood-capital categories as internally homogeneous because constituent resources may have different or opposing relationships with adaptation. Full article

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, yet the majority of cases are diagnosed at advanced stages when a cure is rarely achievable. Low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening in high-risk populations reduces lung cancer mortality by 20–24% in randomised trials, but fewer than 20% of eligible adults in the United States undergo annual screening. We conducted a structured narrative review of PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library for studies published between January 2002 and March 2026, supplemented by review of current clinical guidelines from the USPSTF, NCCN, ACS, CHEST, and ERS. Evidence from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) and the NELSON trial establishes the mortality benefit of LDCT screening, though both trials have important methodological limitations that affect generalisability. The NLST predominantly detected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), particularly adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, while small cell lung cancer (SCLC) was infrequently screen detected and showed no survival benefit from early detection. Guideline eligibility criteria have progressively broadened, and multivariable risk model-based selection using the PLCOm2012 now demonstrates superiority over categorical smoking thresholds in prospective validation cohorts, with the added benefit of reducing racial and ethnic eligibility disparities. Overdiagnosis estimates have declined substantially with extended follow-up, reaching 7% when observation exceeds five years. Implementation remains critically deficient: patient stigma, provider knowledge gaps, structural barriers, and inadequate electronic health record infrastructure collectively account for screening uptake below 20%. Integrating smoking cessation into screening encounters is evidence-based and cost-effective. Artificial intelligence tools show promising performance in nodule detection and risk prediction, but lack the prospective external validation required for routine clinical deployment. The field has established efficacy; the urgent challenge is now effectiveness at scale. Transitioning to risk model-based eligibility, expanding access to underserved populations, and mandating cessation integration represent the three highest-priority actions. A research agenda addressing never-smoker screening, personalised intervals, and robust AI validation must proceed in parallel. Full article

Background: Hypertension is a major contributor to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality globally, with particularly poor control in disadvantaged communities. Although awareness is generally high, sustaining lifestyle changes and treatment adherence remains difficult. This study examined socioeconomic, behavioural, and health system factors associated with hypertension management and explored the role of community-engaged health education in strengthening primary health care. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 107 adults with hypertension attending public primary health care facilities. Data were collected using structured questionnaires covering socioeconomic status, health system access, medication adherence, lifestyle practices, and knowledge and attitudes. Descriptive statistics summarized participant characteristics, while chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression identified factors associated with clinic attendance, dietary adherence, lifestyle practices, and self-management. Results: Awareness of hypertension (86.9%) and trust in clinic care (91.6%) were high; however, a clear knowledge practice gap was evident. Although 79.4% acknowledged the importance of lifestyle changes, only 45.8% followed a hypertension-specific diet. Structural barriers included low income (39.3% earning <R3 000/month) and long distances to clinics (46.7% living ≥5 km away). Health worker advice strongly predicted dietary adherence (OR = 6.36, p = 0.001), lifestyle adherence (OR = 4.24, p = 0.006), and overall self-management (OR = 12.46, p = 0.024), whereas knowledge alone did not. Conclusions: Hypertension management is constrained more by structural and health system factors than by lack of awareness. Strengthening primary health care counselling and community-based health education may improve sustained lifestyle change and outcomes. Full article

Keratoconus assessment relies on corneal topography to characterize curvature, elevation, and thickness. Public datasets remain limited, particularly for Orbscan 3 and underrepresented geographic populations. CornOrb is a multimodal dataset of Bausch & Lomb Orbscan 3 examinations retrospectively collected at an ophthalmology center in Algeria. It contains 1454 examination records from 744 patients: 889 clinically normal and 565 keratoconus records. For each eye, four anonymized PNG maps are provided: axial curvature, anterior elevation, posterior elevation, and pachymetry. Native pixel-wise quantitative curvature, elevation, and pachymetry matrices are not available in the current release. A structured CSV file provides age, sex, astigmatism, maximum keratometry, central and thinnest pachymetry, and anterior and posterior asphericity. Diagnostic labels correspond to the final adjudicated binary clinical diagnosis at the examination level and were established from clinical records together with Orbscan 3 findings. Only clinically definite normal and keratoconus cases were retained, whereas borderline, suspected, forme-fruste, subclinical, or otherwise diagnostically uncertain cases were excluded from the binary dataset. No independent quantitative diagnostic or staging index was used as a corroborating criterion, and inter-rater reliability could not be retrospectively quantified. Accordingly, performance on CornOrb should be interpreted within this adjudicated binary task and should not be extrapolated to early-stage, subclinical, or borderline keratoconus detection. CornOrb is intended to support reproducible research on keratoconus detection and analysis, including image-based classification, multimodal learning combining topographic maps and tabular variables, and reproducible comparative evaluation of machine-learning methods within the CornOrb cohort. To the best of our knowledge, CornOrb is the first publicly accessible African Orbscan 3 dataset dedicated to keratoconus analysis. Full article

Smart city mobility systems face a persistent gap between digital innovation and large-scale deployment. While Mobility-as-a-Service platforms and Mobility Living Labs have generated promising local solutions, transferring these solutions across cities remains constrained by data fragmentation, proprietary platforms, and divergent governance frameworks. This study proposes and operationalizes a policy-oriented framework for assessing the transferability of smart mobility solutions across urban contexts, drawing on the GEMINI project spanning seven European cities: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Munich, Paris-Saclay, Porto, and Turin. A structured dataset covering application features, interoperability characteristics, technical specifications, and implementation challenges was developed and analysed using comparative indicators including Ease of integration, interoperability level, and replication potential. The results demonstrate that transferability depends on the interaction of technical, governance, and institutional conditions rather than technical compatibility alone. Applications built on open standards and modular architectures show significantly higher replication potential, while legacy systems, fragmented governance structures, and restrictive data-sharing arrangements remain the most persistent barriers. To operationalize the framework, a web-based Knowledge Hub was developed and deployed as a live decision-support platform, currently serving all seven Mobility Living Labs and openly accessible to cities across Europe. The framework offers a replicable model for smart city mobility governance. Full article

This work addresses the need for efficient and reusable vector embeddings (VEs) for large-scale RDF Knowledge Graphs, focusing on the widely used DrugBank dataset. The study aims to reduce the computational burden and environmental impact associated with repeatedly generating embeddings for downstream tasks such as link prediction, clustering, and recommendation. To this end, embeddings are generated from the DrugBank Knowledge Graph—comprising over 3.6 million triples, more than 1.5 million entities, and 95 relations—using 25 models implemented in the PyKEEN framework. The dataset is processed into training, validation, and test splits, and embeddings of fixed dimensionality are produced for both entities and relations. The resulting representations are released in multiple formats, including full JSON files, class-partitioned subsets, and an efficient Parquet-based structure, to support scalable querying. Experimental evaluation demonstrates substantial improvements in access time and memory usage when using structured formats, particularly Parquet. Additionally, the study quantifies the carbon footprint of embedding generation, showing that distributing precomputed embeddings can reduce energy consumption by up to 99.37% compared to on-demand recomputation. Overall, the work provides a comprehensive, reusable resource that facilitates research while promoting computational efficiency and environmental sustainability. Full article

Journalism and media studies increasingly describe a communication environment in which news, explanation and public orientation are accessed through search engines, social feeds, notifications, short-form video, platform summaries, podcasts and conversational artificial intelligence. Existing accounts identify attention scarcity, information overload, platform power, news avoidance and AI disruption, yet they do not fully explain why some communicative practices become less sustainable while faster forms of orientation expand under the same conditions. This conceptual paper develops an integrative theoretical synthesis across media practice theory, deep mediatization, platform studies, digital journalism, digital reading research, cognitive load theory, acceleration studies and AI-mediated communication. It proposes latency mismatch as a middle-range mechanism of temporal selection. Latency mismatch occurs when the time a practice requires to generate stable understanding exceeds the continuity intervals that a media environment makes available, rewards or treats as reasonable, especially when lower-latency alternatives provide sufficient orientation. The concept clarifies how platformized journalism and media environments govern not only visibility and attention but also the durations through which information becomes meaningful, trustworthy and actionable. It reframes long-form news reading, investigative engagement and other high-latency practices as structurally vulnerable but socially necessary conditions of public knowledge. Full article