Search Results (18,059)

Computer numerical control (CNC) machining process simulation is increasingly central to intelligent manufacturing, yet its deployment in brownfield environments remains constrained by legacy controllers, heterogeneous data semantics, limited computational resources, and rising cybersecurity requirements. While digital twins (DTs), artificial intelligence (AI), and multi-physics simulation have matured conceptually, practical adoption, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), continues to lag behind theoretical capability. This paper presents a PRISMA-guided systematic review of peer-reviewed literature, standards, and industrial reports published between 2019 and 2025, focusing on CNC machining simulation, digital twin architectures, interoperability standards, and intelligent optimisation under brownfield constraints. Rather than proposing new simulation algorithms, the review synthesises fragmented evidence into a deployable, standards-aligned integration perspective. The review consolidates prior work into a seven-layer architecture grounded in ISO 23247, explicitly separating sensing, communication, digital twin entities, analytics, and human–machine interaction. It derives practical decision rules for middleware selection, edge-cloud compute placement under latency constraints, and modelling strategy selection, ranging from mechanistic and finite-element methods to hybrid reduced-order and machine-learning surrogates. An SME-oriented implementation and validation roadmap links staged retrofitting to measurable operational indicators, including overall equipment effectiveness, first-pass yield, downtime, cycle time, and energy intensity. Full article

This systematic review synthesises the qualitative literature on Māori leadership to examine how leadership is conceptualised, enacted, and constrained, and what this implies for Aotearoa New Zealand’s health system. Across included studies, Māori leadership is grounded in whakapapa-based legitimacy, tikanga and mātauranga Māori, and collective responsibility for relational, cultural, and intergenerational wellbeing; these foundations persist across “traditional” and “contemporary” settings, with differences reflecting institutional conditions rather than shifts in core values. Interpreting the literature through a Māori cultural lens, the review shows that leadership is often exercised within Crown-dominated organisations where Māori authority is not the default, requiring leaders to navigate multiple accountabilities to iwi and communities, organisational mandates, and statutory obligations. Hybridity emerges as a structurally produced feature of practice, integrating Māori relational ethics with bureaucratic, professional, and governance requirements and ongoing translation work to make Māori priorities legible within institutional systems. Health-sector evidence illustrates how commissioning, funding, and accountability arrangements can limit Māori decision-making, increase leadership burden, and constrain sustainability and leadership pipelines. The review concludes that strengthening Māori leadership in health requires organisational and system change—such as clearer Māori decision rights, resourced Māori-led priority setting, and accountability mechanisms that operationalise equity and anti-racism—alongside targeted research on governance, commissioning, and system design. Full article

In the history as well as historiography of Chinese Buddhism, the tradition has often been closely associated with death-related cultural practices and ideas, an association that has frequently carried negative connotations. Early twentieth-century reformers such as Taixu famously criticized Buddhism as a religion of ghosts and funerals and sought to redirect Mahāyāna Buddhism toward engagement with an urban, modernizing society. Contemporary Taiwanese Buddhists have realized many aspects of this socially engaged vision. Yet concern with death remains deeply embedded in Buddhist life. Far from standing in contradiction to social engagement, this concern has become one of its central expressions, most visibly in the emergence of modern Buddhist palliative care. Focusing on the writings of the scholar-monk Shi Huimin, this article examines the development of Buddhist palliative care in Taiwan in response to a secular, multireligious, and rapidly aging society, with primary attention to Huimin’s conceptual work. Rather than treating death in isolation, Huimin situates dying within a broader ethical horizon that links good death to good aging, good living, and community formation. Through his reinterpretation of the Five Śīlas and his notion of a Community Pure Land, he extends prevailing concerns with dying well toward a more comprehensive reflection on everyday moral cultivation, healthy lifestyles, and communal responsibility. In this sense, the study reads Buddhist palliative care as a site that “provincializes” dominant Euro-American frameworks of spiritual and palliative care, highlighting their particular historical and Christian-inflected origins while tracing how they are reconfigured and made productive in a multireligious, secular context. By foregrounding Huimin’s conceptual contributions, this study highlights how palliative and spiritual care are localized and reworked within Taiwanese Buddhism, connecting end-of-life care to broader questions of life, aging, and community well-being. Full article

Purpose: This study provides a critical examination of the literature on applying artificial intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR) in restaurant settings and related foodservice operations. It focuses on how AI and XE influence consumer nutrition awareness and decision-making about food choices, and their implications for customer satisfaction, loyalty, and service delivery in foodservice environments. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a systematic literature review (SLR) approach following the PRISMA method. An initial search identified over 3900 academic papers published between 2016 and 2025. Studies were selected on the basis of predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria, and 26 peer-reviewed articles were analyzed. The review provides a conceptual synthesis and develops propositions for practical applications and future research directions. Findings: The review reveals a shift from static systems that rely on optimization, toward adaptive and user-centered solutions that are behavior-oriented. AI applications predominate in the case of calorie tracking, personalized recommendations, and menu planning. Though deployment of XR technologies (e.g., AR and VR) is less prevalent, they offer potential for immersive, and real-time interventions. A key distinction emerges between studies demonstrating empirical effectiveness (e.g., improved understanding and healthier choices) and those focused on technical and/or conceptual developments. To date, there has been limited validation of behavioral impacts in foodservice settings. Originality: This study offers a theory-informed conceptualization of AI and XR applications in restaurant and foodservice contexts by integrating three perspectives: hospitality (menus and dining experience), nutrition (dietary awareness and healthier choices), and human–technology interaction (technology acceptance and user engagement). The study reconceptualizes AI- and XR-enabled systems as behavioral intervention tools and outlines a focused research agenda for advancing nutritional communication in foodservice environments. Full article

This study examines the roles of startup hubs within the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) and their implications for cultural innovation and tourism in European cities. Despite the growing importance of CCIs in urban development and destination branding, few studies have explored the organisational, social and communicative dynamics of cultural startup hubs. To address this gap, a comparative mixed-methods approach is applied to analyse 91 incubated startups in three European hubs: 104factory (Paris, France), Makerversity (London, UK) and A Lab (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). This study integrates structural variables (sustainability and institutionalisation), social variables (gender representation in leadership) and communication variables (activity and engagement on Instagram). The results reveal distinct organisational models, from highly institutionalised structures to more flexible, community-oriented approaches, with notable differences in terms of sustainability and gender distribution. In terms of communication, greater engagement is associated with content focused on community, identity and collective creativity, rather than promotional strategies. These findings highlight the role of startup hubs as hybrid intermediaries that not only support cultural entrepreneurship, but also contribute to the symbolic positioning and tourist appeal of the cities in which they are located. This study offers theoretical and practical insights for the development of more inclusive, sustainable and effectively communicative cultural ecosystems. Full article

Culturally unsafe mental health services contribute to persistent inequities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, yet existing cultural safety frameworks lack clear, prioritised, community-endorsed implementation guidance. This study aimed to establish Aboriginal consensus on cultural safety principles, implementation priorities and practical actions for culturally safe mental health services. A three-round modified Delphi study was conducted with 37 Aboriginal participants from Western Australia with expertise in mental health, social and emotional wellbeing and lived experience. In Round 1, participants completed an online survey rating the importance of cultural safety principles and identifying those requiring urgent action. In Rounds 2 and 3, facilitated yarning sessions reviewed findings, refined principles, grouped them into implementation domains, and identified priority actions. Aboriginal Participatory Action Research ensured Aboriginal leadership and governance throughout. All principles achieved strong consensus for importance. The most urgent priorities were trustworthiness, Aboriginal governance, trauma-informed care, addressing racism and strengthening the Aboriginal workforce. Participants organised the refined principles into six implementation domains, with Leadership and Governance identified as foundational to reform. Trustworthiness was reframed as an aspirational outcome requiring structural change. This study provides a community-endorsed, prioritised framework for translating cultural safety principles into mental health service practice and policy. Full article

This study addresses the growing necessity to understand how artificial intelligence (AI) competency and soft skills jointly influence organizational innovation and performance in the era of digital transformation. Despite the rapid adoption of AI technologies across industries, organizations continue to face significant challenges in effectively integrating technical AI capabilities with essential human-centric soft skills such as communication, adaptability, and leadership. This gap often limits the realization of AI-driven value and sustainable competitive advantage. The primary challenge in this research area is the lack of comprehensive models that simultaneously examine AI competency and soft skills within a unified framework, particularly in emerging economies where digital maturity varies widely. Existing studies tend to focus either on technical competencies or behavioral factors in isolation, leading to fragmented insights. To address these challenges, this study proposes a novel integrated research model that examines the combined effects of AI competency and soft skills on innovation outcomes and organizational performance. The model is empirically validated using structural equation modeling (SEM), providing robust evidence of the interrelationships among key constructs. The findings reveal that both AI competency and soft skills significantly contribute to innovation capability, which in turn enhances organizational performance. The study offers important theoretical and practical implications by bridging the gap between technical and human dimensions of AI adoption, thereby providing a more holistic understanding of digital transformation success. Full article

The increasing complexity of next-generation wireless systems challenges the scalability and generalization capabilities of traditional model-driven physical layer (PHY) design, which relies on analytically derived channel models and optimization frameworks. This paper presents a comprehensive survey and critical review of deep learning (DL) architectures enabling the transition toward AI-native PHY design. A unified optimization perspective is developed in which all PHY tasks—including channel estimation, channel state information (CSI) feedback, massive MIMO processing, signal detection, channel coding, beamforming, resource allocation, and semantic-aware transmission—are formulated under a common empirical risk minimization (ERM) framework. Neural architectures such as autoencoders, convolutional and recurrent networks, transformers, and reinforcement learning models are examined through their underlying optimization formulations, loss functions, training methodologies, and representation learning mechanisms. The review compares model-driven and AI-native approaches in terms of performance metrics, computational complexity, robustness, generalization capability, and practical deployment constraints, including hardware limitations, energy efficiency, and real-time feasibility. The analysis highlights the conditions under which AI-native architectures provide adaptability and performance improvements while identifying trade-offs in complexity, latency, and interpretability. The study concludes by outlining prioritized research directions toward fully adaptive and self-optimizing wireless communication systems. Full article

In recent years, sustainability reporting has taken on an increasingly important role in corporate strategy discussions. Initially a voluntary tool, it has become a benchmark for measuring and communicating the environmental, social, and economic impacts of organizations in a structured way. In light of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the research assumes that reporting is a lever for change and organizational innovation. To test the hypothesis, the authors chose to use what is known as a ‘natural experiment’: they observed the experience of a particular type of company, benefit corporations, which are required to publish an annual impact report. The empirical investigation was conducted using content analysis methodology to read the impact reports, websites, and social media channels of the companies, as well as case studies through semi-structured interviews. The findings of this study suggest that sustainability reporting can play a role that goes beyond transparency and compliance. In the cases analyzed, the preparation of the sustainability or impact report appears to function as an organizational coordination mechanism that mobilizes internal and external stakeholders. Through this process, companies progressively develop shared interpretations of sustainability objectives, experiment with measurement practices and introduce organizational changes affecting work organization, production processes and value-chain relationships. Full article

Pharmaceutical care provides the conceptual foundation for integrating pharmacogenetics into everyday pharmacy practice. Defined by Hepler and Strand as “the responsible provision of drug therapy for the purpose of achieving specific outcomes that improve a patient’s quality of life”, pharmaceutical care emphasizes a patient-centered approach in which the pharmacist collaborates with the patient, physician, and other healthcare professionals to design, implement, and monitor individualized therapeutic plans. In this context, pharmacogenetics can be regarded as an extension of pharmaceutical care: while the traditional model relies on monitoring patient outcomes and adherence, PGx adds a genetic dimension that allows treatment to be optimized from the very beginning. The pharmacist’s role therefore evolves from not only ensuring safe and effective use of medicines, but also interpreting genetic test results, supporting adherence to genetically guided therapy, and educating patients about the implications of their personal genetic profile. The introduction of pharmacogenetics testing as one of the potential services offered by community pharmacies is a promising proposition that may revolutionize the approach to drug therapy. Pharmacogenetics, a subset of pharmacogenomics, focuses on the study of DNA sequence variations that influence response to drugs. Thanks to advances in the field of genomics, it has become possible to study the genetic basis of variability in drug response. The identification of alleles responsible for the rapid or slow metabolism of xenobiotics has ushered in a new era in pharmacology. The aim of this interdisciplinary field, combining genetics and pharmacology, is to adapt treatment to a specific patient based on the analysis of their genome and gene polymorphism. Throughout the world, pharmacogenetics is gaining importance as a tool for personalizing medicine. In countries such as the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, programs integrating pharmacogenetics with healthcare are being developed. Clinical trials and the implementation of genetic tests into medical practice allow for better matching of medications and reducing the risk of side effects. Pharmacists will play a key role in integrating pharmacogenetics into healthcare. As specialists in the field of pharmacotherapy, they will support physicians in interpreting the results of genetic tests and adapting drug therapy to the individual needs of the patient. Additionally, pharmacists can educate patients and healthcare professionals about the benefits of pharmacogenetics and monitor the effects and safety of medications. Their involvement in the process of personalization of treatment may contribute to improving the effectiveness and safety of pharmacological therapies. Full article

In the context of climate change and the challenge of strengthening urban biodiversity, this paper examines the potential of speculative drawing as a methodological tool for developing biodiversity scenarios of the cityscape within the framework of the New European Bauhaus initiative. The research is based on the initiative’s core values of beautiful, sustainable, and together, and is conducted using a drawing-based methodology grounded in inductive reasoning across three spatial scales in Block 30, which is part of the spatial cultural-historical unit of the Central Zone of New Belgrade. The potentials for biodiversity development are explored at the scale of the apartment, the facade, and the open space of the block. By examining the interactions between the indoor and open spaces of mass housing, ecological potentials emerge. The experimental process demonstrates that drawing can function as a methodological tool that reveals opportunities for community engagement through drawing practices. The proposed layering of drawings offers interpretations of cityscape transformation at each of the three scales. Through speculative scenarios, the drawings provide a methodological tool to co-create biodiversity interventions in mass housing as a sensitive architectural layer within the design process, fostering a new understanding of the relationship between nature and the cityscape. Full article

Tidal flats are ecologically important coastal ecosystems with significant carbon stocks; however, although taxon-specific carbon assessments have been conducted in other coastal systems, such data remain scarce for Korean tidal flats, where bivalve aquaculture is actively practiced. This study examined the macrobenthic community structure and carbon stock contributions in two tidal flats on the west coast of South Korea (Seosan and Seocheon) through field surveys conducted in May and August 2023. A total of 110 invertebrate species from five phyla were identified. Annelida showed the highest species richness at both sites (47.4–62.3% of total species), whereas Mollusca dominated biomass and carbon stocks. Two-way PERMANOVA confirmed significant differences in community structure between sites (Pseudo-F = 15.376, p < 0.001) and months (Pseudo-F = 9.489, p = 0.001), and a significant site × month interaction (Pseudo-F = 4.800, p = 0.028). Nonparametric ANCOVA revealed that Mollusca exhibited a significantly higher carbon mass conversion rate relative to wet weight than all the other taxa (p < 0.001). Rank abundance curves and principal coordinate analyses indicated that Ruditapes philippinarum accounted for 86.9% of total carbon mass in Seosan, whereas R. philippinarum and Mactra veneriformis together accounted for 73.5% in Seocheon, despite Annelida comprising the majority of species richness. These results indicate that the macrobenthic carbon stocks of Korean tidal flats are disproportionately concentrated in a few dominant calcifying Bivalvia species rather than across the overall community diversity, with implications for coastal ecosystem management. Full article

School leadership practices may influence teachers’ motivation and professional engagement, which, in turn, may affect overall school performance. This study explores how secondary school teachers and deputy head teachers perceive head teachers’ leadership practices and how these practices are understood to influence teacher motivation and professional engagement. Drawing on a qualitative design, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers and six deputy head teachers from six government secondary schools in Kabwe District, Zambia. A qualitative approach enabled an in-depth exploration of leadership perceptions across participants from multiple school contexts. Data were analysed using thematic analysis to identify patterns in leadership practices described by participants. The findings indicate that participants frequently described leadership practices aligned with delegation, mentorship, and open communication, shaped by contextual and organisational factors. However, these practices were not consistently experienced across all school contexts. Participants also described the presence of democratic and autocratic leadership practices. Participants perceived participatory and supportive leadership practices as contributing to their motivation and professional engagement. However, participants from several schools reported that autocratic leadership practices continued to shape decision-making, largely due to contextual, institutional, and workload-related constraints. The study highlights the importance of understanding leadership as contextually negotiated and relationally enacted. It contributes to African educational leadership research by demonstrating how leadership practices are experienced and interpreted within specific school contexts and emphasising the value of examining leadership beyond a single theoretical model. The implications of these findings for school leadership practice, policy development, and international educational leadership research are discussed. Full article

The digital transformation of healthcare requires stronger digital competencies among pharmacists, yet evidence on the effectiveness of structured training remains scarce. This study examines the impact of a blended digital health training programme delivered to practicing pharmacists in Bihor County, Romania, as part of the Romanian pilot of the EU-funded European Health Professionals’ and the DigitAl team SkillS (H-PASS) project. A single-group pre–post educational design was applied to pharmacists from Bihor County, Romania, participating in a modular digital health training programme delivered between May and July 2025. A total of 84 pharmacists completed both pre-training and post-training self-reported competency assessments comprising 18 items across three modules: digital innovation and change management, communication and collaboration, and data management and digital literacy. Paired samples t-tests, Cohen’s d effect sizes, Cronbach’s alpha, moderator analyses, and ceiling effect analyses were conducted using Python-based statistical workflows. Statistically significant improvements were observed across all three modules (all p < 0.0001), with large effect sizes (d = 1.04–1.30). Post-training internal consistency increased substantially, with overall Cronbach’s alpha reaching 0.74. The greatest item-level gains were recorded in adaptive communication, cultural adaptation of care, and data protection ethics. No significant moderation effects were found for age, gender, or years of experience. Course satisfaction showed a moderate positive correlation with competency gains (r = 0.528), while perceived improvement was not significantly associated with observed score change. A ceiling effect indicated greater gains among participants with lower baseline competencies. The Romanian implementation of the H-PASS training programme was associated with improved self-reported digital health competencies among practicing pharmacists, high-lighting its potential as a scalable model for digital upskilling in healthcare. Full article

The severe continuous cropping obstacles in Morchella cultivation, driven primarily by soil microecological imbalance, critically constrain the sustainable development of the industry. To address this challenge, this study evaluated the efficacy of rotary tillage, calcium cyanamide (CaCN₂), and organic fertilizer, applied individually and in combination, in mitigating these obstacles and explored the underlying microbial mechanisms. The soil was treated on 5 August 2024, and soil samples were collected on 5 October 2024. Four treatments were established: continuous cropping control (CK), rotary tillage (XGX), rotary tillage combined with calcium cyanamide (MPD), and rotary tillage combined with calcium cyanamide and organic fertilizer (MPX). Soil chemical properties were analyzed in conjunction with metagenomic sequencing to characterize the responses of soil properties and microbial communities, including both eukaryotic and bacterial taxa. The results indicated that the MPD treatment showed a relatively pronounced effect in enhancing key soil fertility indicators, including soil organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (TN), available nitrogen (AN), available potassium (AK), and total phosphorus (TP). All amendments significantly altered microbial community structures. Specifically, the integrated MPX treatment effectively reduced the relative abundance of the pathogenic fungus Olpidium while maintaining higher overall microbial diversity. It also significantly promoted the abundance of Morchella itself and beneficial bacterial phyla such as Actinomycetota and Pseudomonadota. Redundancy analysis identified AN and AK as the primary drivers of eukaryotic community variation, whereas Availa-ble phosphorus (AP) and potential of hydrogen (pH) were the key factors shaping the bacterial community. The results indicated that MPD was the showed relatively pronounced effectiveness in rapidly improving soil fertility and suppressing pathogenic fungi. In contrast, MPX showed relatively better performance in optimizing microbial community structure, enhancing microbial diversity, and strengthening overall ecological stability. These two treatments exhibited distinct advantages in soil chemical improvement and microbial community regulation, respectively, thereby providing alternative practical strategies and a theoretical basis for the ecological management of continuous-cropping obstacles in Morchella cultivation. It should be noted that this study did not include treatments with calcium cyanamide alone, organic fertilizer alone, or their combined application without rotary tillage. This is primarily because rotary tillage is a standard land preparation practice in Morchella cultivation, and the use of soil amendments without accompanying tillage is rarely adopted under practical production conditions. Full article