Search Results (241)

Prior research on power-law distributions has primarily focused on modeling frequency patterns, with less attention given to rank distributions and how ranked positions reflect relative importance among elements. In discrete power-law distributions, frequency-based metrics often provide limited discrimination in the tail, where elements may exhibit similar counts but differ in relative dominance. These patterns are especially evident, for instance, in academic publishing, where keywords, affiliations, and citations commonly exhibit power-law behavior. To address this limitation, we introduce the Relative Importance Factor (RIF) Index, a statistical measure derived from the estimated discrete power-law rank distribution rather than an additional independent parameter. The RIF Index compares the probability of an element at a given rank with its probabilities at lower ranks, enabling explicit pairwise statistical comparison, particularly within the tail. We formalize the mathematical framework for discrete rank modeling and apply RIF to synthetic data and a Scopus dataset on social resilience. Our results show that RIF clarifies dominance relationships among ranked elements, providing stronger discrimination in the tail than frequency-based measures alone. We further introduce the RIF matrix and RIF network to represent these pairwise relationships structurally, supporting interpretation of prominence patterns. Although demonstrated in academic publishing, the method generalizes to domains where categorical variables follow discrete power-law behavior under appropriate model-fit validation. Full article

Animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) are emerging as a promising treatment avenue for adolescent social anxiety. However, the behavioral mechanisms underlying positive results remain unclear. In addition, behavioral signs of discomfort or stress in therapy dogs may suggest concerns about the dog’s welfare. This study examined the associations between stress-linked and affiliative behaviors of adolescents and therapy dogs with adolescent stress reactivity outcomes within an experimental setting in a sample of 50 participants. Linear regression models primarily indicated null findings, with no significant relationships between adolescent affiliative, dog affiliative, or adolescent stress behaviors to self-reported anxiety or psychophysiological arousal. However, the stress-linked behaviors of shake-off and yawning in dogs were negatively associated with adolescent stress reactivity, although the relationships had small effect sizes. These findings provide preliminary insights into the behavioral mechanisms related to changes in adolescent arousal and implications for dog welfare within AAIs. Future research should replicate with larger samples, test for effects with different dogs, and use diverse physiological stress markers for both species involved in the intervention. Additionally, examining the temporal relationships between adolescents and therapy dog behaviors to stress reactivity outcomes would provide insight into causal relationships. Full article

Adult neurogenesis is a regulated form of brain plasticity shaped by interactions between hormonal systems and environmental context. Social experience has been identified as an important modulator of neuronal proliferation, differentiation, and survival across the lifespan, although effects vary across species, developmental stages, and experimental paradigms. This review synthesizes evidence indicating that diverse social behaviors—including isolation, social hierarchy, parenting, sexual interaction, social buffering, and social learning—engage neuroendocrine, neurochemical, and stress-related pathways that are associated with modulation of hippocampal and olfactory neurogenesis. Affiliative and reproductive contexts have been linked in multiple models to enhanced neurogenic indices via gonadal hormones, oxytocinergic and vasopressinergic signaling, and neurotrophic mechanisms, whereas chronic isolation or social defeat has frequently been associated with reduced neurogenic markers, particularly within stress-sensitive regions of the ventral dentate gyrus. Sex differences further shape these patterns, reflecting both biological regulation and uneven sampling across paradigms. Comparative findings in prairie voles, eusocial mole-rats, nonhuman primates, songbirds, and teleost fish indicate that social organization can be accompanied by either increased or constrained neurogenic activity, depending on ecological pressures and life-history strategies. Collectively, the available evidence suggests that adult neurogenesis represents a context-dependent plastic process embedded within vertebrate social systems, while underscoring the need for integrative and evidence-graded interpretations. Full article

Given the limited knowledge of early-life behavior in the Massese dairy breed, this study investigated lamb behavior from 5 to 70 days under two rearing conditions to identify age-related behavioral phases potentially relevant to weaning. Twenty-two Massese lambs were reared either in an Indoor housing system during the winter or in an outdoor Pasture system during the spring, in accordance with traditional seasonal management practices. Lambs in both systems remained with their dams with continuous access to milk. Behavioral variables, recorded weekly during daylight and expressed as relative frequencies, were analyzed against age and rearing system, using THI as covariate. Growth influenced most behaviors, with similar age-related trends across rearing systems. Suckling behavior decreased significantly with age, tending to cease at approximately 40 days in Indoor lambs and 50 days in Pasture lambs. Grooming also declined over time, indicating reduced affiliative interactions irrespective of the rearing system. In contrast, solid feed intake and rumination increased progressively, reflecting a transition toward nutritional independence. Pasture lambs engaged in moving and grazing activities while indoor lambs spent most of their time lying. These results suggest preliminary insights into a management context-associated, behavior-based weaning window in Massese lambs. Full article

Affiliated Open Spaces (AOS) constitute vital public assets within high-density vertical cities. However, prevailing scholarship remains largely confined to two-dimensional horizontal perspectives, overlooking the quantitative impact of vertical built environment characteristics on spatial distribution and human behavior. Focusing on four high-density districts in Guangzhou typified by distinct three-dimensional morphologies, this study integrates field surveys, 3D geospatial data acquisition, and 621 valid questionnaires to empirically analyze the impact of 3D spatial features on user behavior and the mediating role of accessibility. Utilizing the ArcGIS 3D Analyst for vertical accessibility measurement and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) for path analysis, the study tests the hypothesized relationships using multi-source data. The results indicate that (1) a user’s vertical location exerts a significant negative impact on both accessibility and human behavior; (2) building density and building functional diversity indirectly promote user engagement primarily by significantly enhancing accessibility, thereby confirming accessibility as a critical mediator; and (3) significant spatial heterogeneity exists, revealing distinct correlation patterns across varying built environments. This research elucidates the pivotal constraint of “vertical location” and validates the mediating efficacy of accessibility, offering empirical insights for human-centric vertical urban planning. Full article

Human–technology relationships have become core strategic capabilities and enablers of enterprise sustainability. Contemporary interactions between humans and technology are undergoing a profound transformation toward a more human-centric and value-oriented paradigm, aiming for Industry and Society 5.0, a shift that is particularly salient in banking. The influence of customer experience quality on the strategic foundations of enterprise management is being fundamentally redefined. The purpose of this research is to assess the influence of customer experience on marketing outcomes in the banking industry. To analyze the directions, strengths, and statistical significance of relationships, structural equation modeling (SEM) using partial least squares (PLS) was employed. The research model was tested on a sample of 616 valid responses from customers of banking services in Serbia. The research shows that customer experience positively impacts customer satisfaction, behavioral loyalty intentions, and word-of-mouth, making it a strong predictor of marketing outcomes. The moderating roles of gender, customer segment, and respondents’ regional affiliation were tested, identifying variables that moderate significant relationships between customer experience and marketing outcomes, unveiling detailed insights into demographic and segmentation disparities. The findings offer robust empirical support for managerial decision making in customer experience enhancement initiatives. Full article

Pain empathy plays an important role in both social bonding and defensive mechanisms, yet previous studies have mostly used non-predictive paradigms and rarely examined the effects of expectation. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), this study explored how pain expectation temporally modulates empathic responses and proposed an avoidance–approach dual-drive model. Behaviorally, participants responded faster and more accurately under pain-expectation conditions. At the neural level, greater N2 amplitudes were elicited by pain expectation, reflecting avoidance reactions driven by self-protection. In the P3 stage, two concurrent effects emerged: (1) overall P3 amplitudes decreased under pain expectation, suggesting reduced cognitive resource allocation due to avoidance; and (2) painful stimuli still evoked larger P3 amplitudes than neutral stimuli, indicating empathic engagement associated with approach motivation. These results suggest that pain empathy is not governed by a single mechanism but by a dynamic interplay between avoidance and approach motivations at different temporal stages, providing a neurophysiological framework that integrates defensive and affiliative needs in pain empathy. Full article

Music is more than just entertainment. It is a complex auditory stimulus that engages various cognitive processing systems. Accordingly, natural music-listening patterns may reveal insights into individual differences in general cognitive ability (GCA). In this study (N = 185), we used real-world smartphone-based music-listening records collected over five months to explore this question. We quantified participants’ listening habits (e.g., listening durations) and music preferences based on audio characteristics (e.g., tempo, mode) and lyrical characteristics (e.g., positive emotion words, affiliation words) of the songs they had listened to. These strictly behavioral features were used to predict GCA scores using linear LASSO regression and nonlinear random forest models. Out-of-sample cross-validation indicated modest predictive performance, with only the random forest model detecting small but reliable associations between music-listening behavior and GCA. Interpretable machine learning analyses showed that lyrics-based preferences were the most informative feature group, followed by listening habits, whereas audio characteristics contributed little predictive value. We discuss how these findings offer initial evidence that cognitive ability may be reflected, albeit subtly, in micro-patterns of everyday, non-achievement-related behavior, and outline conceptual and methodological challenges for future work using digital behavioral data to complement traditional cognitive assessment. Full article

Background/Objectives: Dental caries remains one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in early childhood, and traditional preventive strategies often fail to achieve sustained risk reduction without individualized management. The Caries Management by Risk Assessment protocol (CAMBRA) provides a structured, risk-based preventive approach integrating clinical and behavioral indicators. This study evaluated the two-year effectiveness of a CAMBRA-based prevention program in preschool children. Methods: A prospective observational cohort study was conducted in a university-affiliated pediatric dentistry clinic in Italy. A total of 296 children aged 4–6 years were enrolled and classified into caries risk categories according to CAMBRA criteria. Personalized preventive plans included oral hygiene education, dietary counselling, fluoride applications, and sealants where indicated. Clinical outcomes were assessed over a 24-month follow-up period. Results: Over two years, a substantial shift toward lower caries risk categories was observed, with the proportion of children classified as High/ Very High risk markedly reduced. Improvements were also recorded in caries experience (dmft) and oral hygiene status (OHI-S). Greater adherence to scheduled follow-up visits was associated with a higher likelihood of clinical improvement. Conclusions: A CAMBRA-based, risk-guided preventive program implemented in a public pediatric dental setting was associated with meaningful improvements in caries risk profiles and oral health parameters over 24 months. Regular follow-up and caregiver engagement appear to be key factors in sustaining preventive benefits in high-risk preschool populations. Full article

Financial regulation assumes that parent firms reliably support distressed subsidiaries during crises. We test this assumption with evidence from the 2007–2009 financial crisis and find that parent support was selective rather than reliable. Using novel measures of sibling distress and granular parent-affiliate funding flows, our findings reveal that capital allocation within bank holding companies (BHCs) disproportionately favored stronger affiliates. The results show that BHCs channeled capital toward more liquid and resilient subsidiaries while limiting support to weaker ones. Profitable parents became increasingly selective under stress, and nonbank subsidiaries emerged as critical internal liquidity providers when external markets froze. This selective reallocation highlights a gap between regulatory doctrine and actual behavior: intra-group capital allocation mechanisms can amplify systemic stress rather than mitigate it. By examining overlooked internal market dynamics during this major financial crisis, the study offers insights for strengthening financial stability against future systemic shocks. Assessing parent firm strength alone appears insufficient. Effective crisis prevention requires supervisory frameworks that monitor sibling fragility across conglomerates, evaluate the liquidity roles of nonbank affiliates, and stress test intra-group capital flows. Full article

Heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNANs) are central components of the microbial loop, transferring carbon from bacteria to higher trophic levels and facilitating nutrient recycling. While many HNANs are free-swimming, some exhibit enhanced feeding efficiency when attached to surfaces, including diatom frustules. Here, we describe the attachment behavior of a novel interception-feeding HNAN affiliated with the order Bicosoecida to centric diatoms common in North Carolina coastal waters. Using growth experiments, live observations, and time-lapse microscopy, we quantified attachment frequency and assessed its influence on diatom growth for three diatom species: Coscinodiscus sp., Odontella sp., and Rhizosolenia sp. HNAN attachment differed significantly among diatom taxa: Coscinodiscus sp. hosted the highest and most sustained numbers per frustule, whereas after normalizing for surface area, Rhizosolenia sp. exhibited the highest attachment efficiency. Diatom peak growth was 1.2 to 2.1-fold higher and occurred earlier in HNAN co-cultures than in controls, indicating microbial recycling by the HNAN stimulated growth. These findings highlight the nuanced ecological role attached HNANs might play as they exploit diatom-associated boundary layers to enhance bacterial encounter rates. The growth trajectories in our lab experiments suggests that attachment behavior in situ can play a role in driving diatom bloom dynamics and, therefore, play an important role for carbon cycling. Full article

Background/Objectives: Evidence on religiosity, religious affiliation, and e-nutrition literacy in shaping nutrition attitudes is limited in adult majority-Muslim contexts. The aim of this study is to examine the independent and interactive associations of religiosity, religious affiliation, and e-nutrition literacy with positive nutrition attitudes among adults in Türkiye. Methods: This study involved a cross-sectional online survey conducted November–December 2024 via convenience and snowball sampling. After quality checks, 1104 adults remained (mean age = 25.7 years, mean BMI = 23.5 kg/m²; 69.3% female, 90.7% Muslim). Religiosity was measured with the Duke University Religion Index, and nutrition literacy and positive nutrition attitudes with validated scales. Demographics and anthropometrics were self-reported. Positive Nutrition Attitudes was the primary outcome, predicted by e-nutrition literacy, analyzed using robust OLS and explored for nonlinearities/interactions with Random Forests and SHAP. A generalized linear model tested three-way interactions of e-nutrition literacy, religious affiliation, and religiosity, adjusting for age and BMI. Performance used train or test splits and five-fold cross-validation. Results: e-Nutrition literacy was the strongest predictor (β = 0.155, p < 0.001). Cross-validated R² was modest (about 0.04). Random Forests slightly improved fit (test R² about 0.064). SHAP indicated a literacy threshold near 26.1 with predominantly positive contributions above this value. In threshold-stratified models, religiosity showed a positive association (β = 0.332, p = 0.010). Non-Muslims had higher unadjusted means, but affiliation effects were not significant after adjustment. Conclusions: The results highlight the threshold-dependent role of e-nutrition literacy in positive nutrition attitudes and the independent effect of religiosity. These results suggest that boosting literacy above the critical threshold and incorporating religious values may support healthier nutrition behaviors. Full article

This study investigates how board gender diversity affects firms’ long-term investment behavior in Korea, focusing on capital expenditures and R&D spending from 2011 to 2021. Using firm fixed-effects regressions and robustness tests with alternative measures of gender diversity, the results show that independent female directors are positively associated with long-term investment. However, this effect is significant only in non-Chaebol firms, where board independence is stronger, and gender diversity reflects genuine governance engagement. In Chaebol-affiliated firms, where female directors are often appointed to meet regulatory requirements, the relationship is insignificant, suggesting that diversity driven by formal compliance fails to enhance strategic decision-making. These findings highlight that the effectiveness of gender diversity depends on institutional authenticity rather than numerical representation. The study contributes to the corporate governance literature by showing how ownership structure and board independence condition the real impact of gender-diverse boards and offers policy implications for promoting substantive rather than symbolic diversity reforms. Full article

This paper presents a two-stage explainable recommendation system for reciprocal affiliate–seller matching that uses machine learning and data science to handle voluminous data and generate personalized ranking lists for each user. In the first stage, a representation learning model was trained to create dense embeddings for affiliates and sellers, ensuring efficient identification of relevant pairs. In the second stage, a learning-to-rank approach was applied to refine the recommendation list based on user suitability and relevance. Diversity-enhancing reranking (maximal marginal relevance/explicit query aspect diversification) and popularity penalties were also implemented, and their effects on accuracy and provider-side diversity were quantified. Model interpretability techniques were used to identify which features affect a recommendation. The system was evaluated on a fully synthetic dataset that mimics the high-level statistics generated by affiliate platforms, and the results were compared against classical baselines (ALS, Bayesian personalized ranking) and ablated variants of the proposed model. While the reported ranking metrics (e.g., normalized discounted cumulative gain at 10 (NDCG@10)) are close to 1.0 under controlled conditions, potential overfitting, synthetic data limitations, and the need for further validation on real-world datasets are addressed. Attributions based on Shapley additive explanations were computed offline for the ranking model and excluded from the online latency budget, which was dominated by approximate nearest neighbors-based retrieval and listwise ranking. Our work demonstrates that high top-K accuracy, diversity-aware reranking, and post hoc explainability can be integrated within a single recommendation pipeline. While initially validated under synthetic evaluation, the pipeline was further assessed on a public real-world behavioral dataset, highlighting deployment challenges in affiliate–seller platforms and revealing practical constraints related to incomplete metadata. Full article

Behavior-related factors represent a major cause of cat relinquishment to shelters, highlighting the need for reliable tools to support appropriate matching between cats and adopters. The present study applied the ASPCA^® Meet Your Match^® Feline-ality™ assessment to evaluate personality profiles of shelter cats and to examine factors associated with variation in personality expression across shelters. A total of 113 cats housed in six shelters in the south of France were assessed using a standardized behavioral protocol. Differences between shelters were evaluated using one-way ANOVA for behavioral scale scores, while associations between personality type and shelter affiliation, sex, coat color, and age were analyzed using χ² tests of independence. Significant differences between shelters were observed for the majority of behavioral assessment items, as well as for composite valiance and independent–gregarious scale scores. Shelter affiliation was significantly associated with the distribution of Feline-ality™ personality types, indicating that personality profiles were not uniformly distributed across shelters. No statistically detectable association was found between personality type and sex. In contrast, significant associations were observed between personality type and both coat color category and age category, suggesting non-random variation in personality distribution across these factors. These findings indicate that shelter-related and individual factors are associated with variation in feline personality expression. While causal relationships cannot be inferred, the results underscore the importance of considering environmental context and population characteristics when interpreting shelter-based behavioral assessments. The Feline-ality™ framework appears to be a useful tool for characterizing personality variation in shelter cats and may support improved adoption matching when applied with appropriate caution. Full article