Search Results (809)

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) represents a major public health problem in Europe, with significant physical, psychological, and social consequences. Nurses are often the first professionals capable of detecting early signs of IPV, yet they lack validated instruments to assess their clinical competency in detection, evaluation, documentation, and intervention. This study aimed to develop and validate the Intimate Partner Violence Nursing Competency Scale (IPVNCS), aligned with the Nursing Intervention Classification (NIC 6403). Methods: A cross-sectional psychometric study was conducted among registered nurses in the Community of Madrid. A 30-item Likert-type self-administered instrument (1–5 scale) was developed based on NANDA, NIC 6403, and NOC frameworks. A total of 202 nurses participated. Reliability was assessed through Cronbach’s alpha. Construct validity was examined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with Promax rotation and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS 26. Ethical approval was obtained (CEU San Pablo, code 843/24/104). Results: After item refinement, 26 items remained across four dimensions: (1) Intervention and Referral, (2) Detection and Assessment, (3) Documentation and Recording-keeping, (4) Psychosocial Support. The instrument showed excellent reliability ($\alpha$ = 0.97). KMO was 0.947 and Bartlett’s test was significant (p < 0.001). CFA demonstrated satisfactory fit: ${\chi }^2$/df = 2.066, RMSEA = 0.073, CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.91, NFI = 0.86. The final model adequately represented the latent structure. After debugging, its psychometric properties were significantly improved. Four redundant items were eliminated, achieving internal consistency ($\alpha$ = 0.97), a KMO value of 0.947 and a significant Bartlett’s test of sphericity. It showed a better fit, according to ${\chi }^2$/df = (2.066); Parsimony = (720.736); RMR (0.0529; RMSEA (0.073); NFI (0.860); TLI (0.910) and CFI (0.920). The final model provides an adequate representation of the latent structure of the data. This study provides initial evidence of construct validity and internal consistency reliability of the IPVNCS. Conclusions: The IPVNCS is a valid and reliable tool to assess nursing competencies for clinical management of IPV. It supports structured evaluation across four core nursing domains, enabling improved educational planning, clinical decision-making, and quality of care for victims. The scale fills a gap in clinical nursing assessment tools and can support protocol development in emergency, primary care, and hospital settings. Full article

Conversational agents are transforming digital interactions across various domains, including healthcare, education, and customer service, thanks to advances in large language models (LLMs). As these systems become more autonomous and ubiquitous, understanding what constitutes high-quality interaction from a user perspective is increasingly critical. Despite growing empirical research, the field lacks a unified framework for defining, measuring, and designing user-perceived interaction quality in human–artificial intelligence (AI) dialogue. Here, we present an integrative review of 125 empirical studies published between 2017 and 2025, spanning text-, voice-, and LLM-powered systems. Our synthesis identifies three consistent layers of user judgment: a pragmatic core (usability, task effectiveness, and conversational competence), a social–affective layer (social presence, warmth, and synchronicity), and an accountability and inclusion layer (transparency, accessibility, and fairness). These insights are formalised into a four-layer interpretive framework—Capacity, Alignment, Levers, and Outcomes—operationalised via a Capacity × Alignment matrix that maps distinct success and failure regimes. It also identifies design levers such as anthropomorphism, role framing, and onboarding strategies. The framework consolidates constructs, positions inclusion and accountability as central to quality, and offers actionable guidance for evaluation and design. This research redefines interaction quality as a dialogic construct, shifting the focus from system performance to co-orchestrated, user-centred dialogue quality. Full article

Background: Hygiene and food-safety training is a critical public health strategy for preventing contamination and promoting safe food-handling practices in community settings. This study evaluated the long-term effectiveness of In-person, Online, and Hybrid instructional modes in enhancing hygiene and food-safety competencies among trainees in Ilocos Norte, Philippines. Methods: Using a longitudinal quasi-experimental design, performance was measured at 12, 24, and 36 months across four domains: Personal Health & Hygiene, Food Hazards, Cleaning and Sanitation, and Good Manufacturing Practices. A total of 384 students met all inclusion criteria and completed the full series of evaluations. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were employed. Results: Competency scores increased significantly over time in all instructional modes (p < 0.001). Hybrid learners demonstrated the highest early longitudinal gains at 12 months (mean score, M = 20.88), compared with In-person (M = 10.28) and Online (M = 10.57). At 36 months, Online learners achieved the highest performance (M = 19.50), indicating stronger long-term retention. Effect size analysis using eta squared (η²) showed large effects for Cleaning and Sanitation (η² = 0.196), Good Manufacturing Practices (η² = 0.115), and overall performance (η² = 0.138). Standardized Mean Change (SMC) indicated substantial improvement across modes, with Hybrid showing the greatest early change (SMC = 41.76 at 12 months) and Online exhibiting the strongest long-term improvement (SMC = 38.80 at 36 months). Training Efficiency Index (TEI) identified In-person instruction as most efficient (TEI = 30.55), followed by Online (29.49) and Hybrid (19.56). Linear Mixed-Effects Regression confirmed significant main effects of Time (β = 4.82, p < 0.001) and Mode (β = 3.97, p < 0.001), as well as a significant Time × Mode interaction (β = −1.42, p < 0.01). Conclusions: The findings indicate that Hybrid instruction supports rapid early competency gains, while Online instruction yields superior long-term mastery of hygiene and food-safety competencies. These results provide evidence-based guidance for optimizing hygiene training programs in community and public health contexts. Full article

The recent literature has increasingly drawn attention to the role of teachers’ personal and relational resources in managing stress and sustaining their well-being. In this study, we examined how self-efficacy and satisfaction in key school relationships contribute to teachers’ psychological health. A sample of 339 Italian teachers (M_age = 49.7, SD = 9.26; 85.5% female) completed measures assessing their self-efficacy, satisfaction in relationships with students, colleagues, and parents, and their overall well-being. We tested a parallel mediation model to explore whether these three forms of relational satisfaction helped explain the link between self-efficacy and well-being. The analyses indicated that higher self-efficacy was associated with greater satisfaction across all relational domains, as well as with better well-being. Moreover, satisfaction with students, colleagues, and parents each emerged as a significant mediator, while the direct effect of self-efficacy remained significant, suggesting a pattern of partial mediation. Taken together, these findings underscore how both individual competencies and everyday relational experiences contribute to teachers’ well-being, pointing to the value of interventions that strengthen self-efficacy and enhance the quality of relationships within the school context. Full article

Geothermal energy is a crucial component of climate adaptation and sustainability transitions, as it provides a dependable, low-carbon source of baseload power that can accelerate sustainable energy transitions and enhance climate resilience. Yet, in East Africa—one of the world’s most promising geothermal regions, with the East African Rift—a unique climate-energy opportunity zone—the harnessing of geothermal power remains slow and uneven. This study examines the contextual conditions that facilitate the successful and sustainable development of geothermal power in the region. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 17 experienced professionals who have worked extensively on geothermal projects across East Africa, the analysis identifies how technical, institutional, managerial, and relational circumstances interact to shape outcomes. The findings indicate an interdependent configuration of success conditions, with structural, institutional, managerial, and meta-conditions jointly influencing project trajectories rather than operating in isolation. The most frequently emphasised enablers were resource confirmation and technical design, leadership and team competence, long-term stakeholder commitment, professional project management and control, and collaboration across institutions and communities. A co-occurrence analysis reinforces these insights by showing strong patterns of overlap between core domains—particularly between structural and managerial factors and between managerial and meta-conditions, highlighting the mediating role of managerial capability in translating contextual conditions into operational performance. Together, these interrelated circumstances form a system in which structural and institutional foundations create the enabling context, managerial capabilities operationalise this context under uncertainty, and meta-conditions sustain cooperation, learning, and adaptation over time. The study contributes to sustainability research by providing a context-sensitive interpretation of how project success conditions manifest in geothermal development under climate transition pressures, and it offers practical guidance for policymakers and partners working to advance SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), and SDG 13 (Climate Action) in Africa. Full article

Unsafe behaviors remain a major contributor to workplace accidents within broader safety-management systems. Acknowledging the essential influence of organizational and leadership factors, this study focuses on systematically identifying and prioritizing individual-level determinants of unsafe behavior through an integrated qualitative–quantitative methodology to clarify their specific role within the wider safety framework. Grounded Theory analysis of semi-structured interviews with 40 industry professionals yielded a conceptual model encompassing demographic characteristics, general health, individual competencies, personality traits, and psychological factors. Subsequently, the Fuzzy Delphi Method, applied with 20 domain experts, validated and ranked these determinants. The analysis highlighted risk perception as the most influential factor, followed by work experience, skill level, knowledge, and risk-taking propensity, whereas variables such as family welfare, substance use, and self-display exhibited relatively minor effects. These findings reveal the multidimensional nature of unsafe behavior and underscore the importance of focusing on high-impact personal attributes to enhance workplace safety. By recognizing that many individual factors are shaped by organizational and psychosocial conditions, the study provides evidence-based insights for developing integrated safety management and targeted intervention strategies in industrial settings. Full article

Background/Objectives: Although numerous studies have examined associations between screen time and early language development, less is known about how screen exposure interacts with developmental stage, digital content quality, and parental mediation across childhood and adolescence, particularly with respect to pragmatic communication. This study aimed to address these gaps by examining the joint associations of screen time, content composition, and parental mediation with multiple linguistic and pragmatic domains across a broad age range. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 286 Romanian participants aged 5–19 years, grouped into four developmental stages. Measures included daily screen time, proportion of educational versus recreational content, parental mediation practices, and standardized assessments of vocabulary, verbal fluency, grammatical competence, and pragmatic communication. Analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, 4 × 3 factorial ANOVAs (age group × screen-time category), and multiple linear regression. Results: Higher levels of screen exposure were consistently associated with lower performance across all linguistic and pragmatic domains (r = −0.19 to −0.28, all p < 0.01). Participants viewing >2 h/day showed significantly weaker outcomes than those with ≤1 h/day, particularly in semantic and phonemic fluency and pragmatic communication (p < 0.001). Educational content correlated positively with linguistic scores, whereas recreational content showed negative associations. Parental mediation emerged as a significant positive predictor. In the regression model (R² = 0.42), age (β = 0.47), parental mediation (β = 0.21), and educational content (β = 0.18) predicted better linguistic performance, while screen time (β = −0.29) predicted lower performance. Conclusions: The findings indicate that associations between digital media use and linguistic and pragmatic performance vary across developmental stages and contextual factors. Rather than screen time alone, digital content quality and parental mediation are associated with differences in communicative performance. These results highlight the value of a nuanced, developmentally informed perspective when considering children’s digital media environments. Full article

Nature-based health interventions (NBHIs) are increasingly used in the healthcare system to support people with anxiety, depression and/or stress, highlighting the need for systematic development and evaluation. This study aims to identify target group, professionals, mechanisms, and outcomes of NBHIs for people with mild to moderate anxiety, depression, and/or stress. A Delphi-based study was conducted to explore core components of NBHIs in healthcare settings. Thirteen vs. eleven researchers with expertise related to the target group responded in two rounds. Respondents rated statements on a 7-point Likert scale and prioritised core components regarding target group, professionals, mechanisms, and outcomes. A thematic analysis was applied to synthesise qualitative responses. Consensus was achieved on 12 of 21 items across the four domains. Highest agreement concerned core mechanisms (nature interaction, social community, and physical activity), outcome priorities (mental wellbeing and quality of life), and professional competencies. Greater variation was observed regarding group composition and team delivery. Analysis of qualitative expert responses highlighted four key themes: (1) Balancing Group Composition, (2) Adapting Competencies to Context, (3) Core Mechanisms for Change, and (4) Weighing Perspectives in Outcome Selection. By setting out guiding principles for a programme theory, the study lays the foundation for the design and implementation of context-adapted NBHIs. The study underscores the need to approach NBHIs as complex interventions, thus contributing to a paradigm shift towards a new era of a bio-psycho-social health perspective. Full article

Videogames (VGs) are highly attractive for children and young people. Although videogames were once viewed mainly as sources of distraction and leisure, they are now widely recognised as powerful tools for competence development across diverse domains. Designing and implementing a videogame is even more appealing for children and novice students than merely playing it, but developing programming competencies using a text-based language often constitutes a significant barrier to entry. This article presents the implementation and evaluation of a videogame development experience with university students using the Unity engine and its Visual Scripting block-based tool. Students worked in teams and successfully completed videogame projects, demonstrating substantial gains in programming and game construction skills. The adopted methodology facilitated learning, collaboration, and engagement. Building on a quasi-experimental design that compared a prior unit based on C# and MonoGame with a subsequent unit based on Unity Visual Scripting, the study analyses differences in performance, development effort, and motivational indicators. The results show statistically significant improvements in grades, reduced development time for core mechanics, and higher self-reported confidence when Visual Scripting is employed. The evidence supports the view of Visual Scripting as an effective educational strategy to introduce programming concepts without the syntactic and semantic barriers of traditional text-based languages. The findings further suggest that Unity Visual Scripting can act as a didactic bridge towards advanced programming, and that its adoption in secondary and primary education is promising both for reinforcing traditional subjects (history, language, mathematics) and for fostering foundational programming and videogame development skills in an inclusive manner. Full article

Background: The rapid ageing of the cardiovascular population has profoundly transformed clinical practice, with an increasing proportion of patients presenting advanced age, frailty, multimorbidity, and functional vulnerability. Conventional cardiology models, largely derived from younger and selected populations, often fail to adequately address the complexity of cardiovascular care in older adults. Despite the growing development of cardiogeriatrics, the core competencies required for contemporary geriatric cardiology practice remain insufficiently defined. Methods: This narrative review synthesises evidence from cardiology, geriatrics, heart failure, and the palliative care literature, complemented by clinical expertise in integrated cardiogeriatric care pathways, to identify key competencies relevant to the care of older adults with cardiovascular disease. Results: Four major domains of geriatric cardiology competencies were identified: (1) advanced cardiovascular expertise adapted to ageing physiology, frailty, and multimorbidity; (2) integration of comprehensive geriatric assessment into cardiovascular decision-making; (3) a dedicated cardiogeriatric communication mindset supporting shared decision-making under prognostic uncertainty; and (4) system-based competencies focused on multidisciplinary coordination, care transitions, and therapeutic proportionality. Conclusions: Defining the core competencies of the geriatric cardiologist is essential to addressing the clinical and organisational challenges of an ageing cardiovascular population. This framework provides a pragmatic foundation for clinical practice, education, and future research, supporting integrated cardiogeriatric care models aligned with patient-centred outcomes. Full article

The agricultural sector is predominantly male, with approximately 30% of farms in the EU operated by women. The European Union Rural Pact, the Agri-Food Pact for Skills, and the Common Agricultural Policy have catalysed an increase in agricultural 4.0 research, with the role of women emerging as a subfield of sustainable agriculture. The primary objective of this paper is to evaluate the current literature on women’s roles in smart agriculture, examining the advantages of their participation as a digitally competent workforce that could catalyse improvements in productivity and resilience in rural areas and promote women’s empowerment. A bibliometric study was conducted utilising the Scopus database to fulfil the research objective. This led to the incorporation of 253 articles into the sample. The records were examined using performance analysis and bibliographic coupling (science mapping), facilitated by Biblioshiny 5.0 and VOSviewer 1.6.20 software. The primary findings elucidate essential concepts, predominant study themes, and the temporal progression of the research domain. The identification of numerous women’s role and socio-economic constraints affecting women, which are overlooked in the creation and implementations of technology advancements. Additionally, a research agenda was developed, alongside practical implications for managers and policymakers, to aid the formulation of inclusive agriculture 4.0 projects. Full article

Background: The decline in traditional cooking practices and the increased consumption of ready-to-eat meals have raised concerns about dietary quality and health, especially among university students. Nutrition students, despite their academic training, often struggle to translate theoretical knowledge into healthy eating practices. Culinary classes in academic settings have emerged as promising strategies to enhance both cooking skills (CS) and eating competence (EC). Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a 12-month cooking class program on the development of culinary skills and eating competence among nutrition students at a public university in Brazil. Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted with 42 nutrition students who completed a structured questionnaire at three time points: baseline, after 6 months, and after 1 year of participation in sequential cooking-related subjects. Data were collected using the Brazilian Cooking Skills and Healthy Eating Questionnaire (QBHC) and the Brazilian version of the Satter Eating Competence Inventory (ecSI2.0™BR). Statistical analyses included a repeated-measures ANOVA and a Pearson correlation. Bonferroni post hoc comparisons were conducted following the repeated-measures ANOVA to identify the time points at which significant differences occurred. Results: Participants, predominantly young females (78.6%, mean age 21.07 ± 2.71 years), demonstrated high CS at baseline and showed significant improvements over time (p < 0.05). At baseline, 59.5% of participants (n = 25) were considered competent eaters (EC ≥ 32). Knowledge in cooking terms and techniques increased after one year (p = 0.023). EC mean scores classified participants as competent eaters at the beginning and after one year, with an increase in the internal regulation domain. Improvements in technical culinary knowledge were associated with gains in contextual skills. Conclusions: Participation in structured cooking classes positively influenced the development of CS and EC internal regulation among nutrition students. Full article

Background: Adolescence is a formative period for lifelong dietary patterns, yet Korean adolescents show low fruit and vegetable intake, high sugar and sodium consumption, and rising obesity, highlighting the importance of multidimensional assessment that integrates behavioral, cultural, environmental, and competency-related factors. Methods: A total of 1010 adolescents aged 12–18 years completed an online cross-sectional survey assessing food intake, dietary and physical activity behaviors, dietary culture, and Food Literacy (FL) competencies. Standardized scores were used for hierarchical and K-means clustering to identify dietary practice patterns, and between-cluster differences were examined using ANOVA. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between Dietary Guideline Adherence (DGA) and FL. Results: Four clusters were identified—selective intake–low support (20.4%), regular habits–unbalanced intake (33.3%), high adherence (23.2%), and low adherence (23.1%)—with significant differences in DGA total and domain scores (p < 0.001). The high-adherence cluster showed balanced intake, regular routines, and strong household support, whereas the low-adherence cluster showed poor diet quality, irregular behaviors, and lower socioeconomic status. FL differed across clusters (p < 0.001) and correlated with DGA (r = 0.496, p < 0.01). Total FL predicted DGA (β = 0.496, p < 0.001), explaining 25% of its variance (R² = 0.246). Conclusions: Adolescent diet quality appears to be associated with behavioral, cultural, and competency-related factors. These findings suggest that cluster-specific strategies—such as fat–sugar–sodium reduction, promotion of low-sodium and diverse diets, and maintenance of balanced-dietary patterns—may support tailored school- and community-based nutrition programs and inform further longitudinal and intervention research. Full article

The escalating climate crisis and pervasive digital transformation position university students at a critical juncture where digital competencies increasingly shape environmental engagement. Despite extensive research on digital literacy and environmental responsibility as discrete constructs, the psychological mechanisms linking these domains remain inadequately theorized. This study investigated whether historical empathy mediates the relationship between digital literacy and environmental responsibility among 927 Egyptian university students (50.9% female; M age = 20.50 years). Participants completed validated measures assessing digital literacy, historical empathy (cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions), and environmental responsibility. Mediation analysis using Hayes’ PROCESS macro revealed that historical empathy partially mediated the relationship between digital literacy and environmental responsibility, accounting for approximately 12% of the total effect (indirect effect = 0.0381, 95% CI [0.0132, 0.0636]). Digital literacy demonstrated stronger associations with cognitive empathy (r = 0.337) than affective (r = 0.324) or behavioral empathy (r = 0.209), suggesting digital tools are primarily associated with the contextualization of historical environmental decisions. The model explained 26.6% of variance in environmental responsibility, indicating that while digital literacy exerts substantial direct influence, cultivating historical empathy represents a meaningful complementary pathway. Sustainability educators should integrate historical environmental case studies with digital learning tools to foster empathetic engagement that bridges the attitude–behavior gap. These findings underscore the importance of integrating digital competencies with historical consciousness in sustainability education to bridge the persistent attitude–behavior gap in environmental engagement. Full article

The transition to Outcome-Based Education (OBE) in engineering demands instructional tools that bridge theoretical knowledge and practical engineering competencies. However, traditional Learning Management Systems (LMS) primarily function as static resource repositories, lacking the semantic structure necessary to support deep learning and precise competency tracking. To address this, this study developed a three-layer domain Knowledge Graph (KG) for Structural Geology and integrated it into the ChaoXing LMS (a widely used Learning Management System in Chinese higher education). A semester-long quasi-experimental study (N = 84) was conducted to evaluate its impact on student performance and specific graduation attribute achievement compared to a conventional folder-based approach. Empirical results demonstrate that the KG-integrated group significantly outperformed the control group (p < 0.01, Cohen’s d = 0.74). Notably, while performance on rote memorization tasks was similar, the experimental group showed marked improvement in identifying and solving complex engineering problems. LMS log analysis confirmed a strong positive correlation (r = 0.68) between graph navigation depth and academic success. KG effectively bridged the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical engineering applications (e.g., geohazard analysis). This research confirms that explicit semantic visualization acts as vital cognitive scaffolding, effectively enhancing higher-order thinking and ensuring the rigorous alignment of instruction with engineering accreditation standards. Ultimately, this approach promotes sustainable learning capabilities and prepares future engineers to address complex, interdisciplinary challenges in sustainable development. Full article