Search Results (368)

The intricate relationships between humans and animals have long shaped philosophical, cultural and scientific inquiry. This narrative review examines evolving conceptions of animal consciousness, agency and sentience within broader historical, ethical and epistemological contexts. Drawing on philosophy, ethology, neuroscience, psychology and animal studies, it critically engages debates on anthropocentrism, cognitive ethology, moral considerability and relational ontology. By tracing the shift from mechanistic models of animality to embodied and affective accounts of consciousness, the analysis highlights how contemporary scholarship destabilises traditional forms of human exceptionalism. Building on this interdisciplinary synthesis, the article advances a symbiotic humanist orientation that integrates evolutionary continuity with multidimensional models of consciousness and differentiated normative responsibility. The argument culminates in the articulation of a Stratified Relational Responsibility Model (SRRM), which reconciles ontological continuity with asymmetrical accountability. Within this framework, shared evolutionary conditions ground moral considerability, while the emergence of reflexive and institutional normativity intensifies human ethical obligation. The model offers a non-anthropocentric yet normatively robust account of human–animal relations, situating human distinctiveness not in metaphysical superiority but in heightened responsibility within multispecies ecological systems. Full article

Global research on social–emotional learning (SEL) demonstrates robust benefits for student well-being and academic outcomes, yet SEL is still largely treated as gender and culturally neutral, with little attention to how it intersects with locally specific constructions of masculinity. We address this gap through a qualitative study in three urban secondary schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, combining focus groups with boys aged 13–16 (n = 18), student interviews (n = 10), and teacher/counsellor interviews (n = 10). Using critical masculinity theory, the sociology of emotions, and transformative SEL, a reflexive thematic analysis identifies four patterns: (i) sadness and fear framed as status risks while anger signals strength, (ii) “switching off” feelings as masculinized emotion work tied to locally valued ideals of sabar (endurance) and izzat (honour), (iii) fragile “islands of care” where privacy and dignity enable conditional vulnerability, and (iv) SEL-like practices fostering empathy but also reinforcing stigma when emotions are labelled unmanly. We argue that SEL is a contested site where masculinities are reproduced and renegotiated, and we propose five findings-grounded design principles, including graduated emotional entry points, anti-ridicule norms, and indirect pedagogy for gender-attentive SEL that reduces stigma and supports non-violent masculinities in Pakistani secondary schooling. Full article

Electrical water-bath stunning remains the predominant method used in commercial poultry slaughter worldwide yet its effectiveness and welfare implications may vary among breeds. Taiwanese red-feathered chickens differ from commercial broilers in growth rate and body composition, which may influence their response to electrical stunning. This study investigated the relationships between electrical stunning conditions, electroencephalographic (EEG) indicators of unconsciousness, behavioural reflexes, and carcass quality in Taiwanese red-feathered chickens. A total of 200 female chickens were subjected to direct-current water-bath stunning at 80, 100, 120, 140, or 160 V for 7 s. EEG activity and physical indicators of consciousness were assessed during the first 40 s after stunning, and carcass defects were evaluated post-mortem. Of the 200 birds initially evaluated, EEG data from 153 birds met predefined signal quality criteria and were included in the final analysis. EEG-defined unconsciousness was more frequent and lasted longer at higher voltages (140–160 V), although intermediate voltage levels (e.g., 120 V) did not follow a strictly linear trend. Corneal reflex and spontaneous eye blinking were strongly associated with EEG-based unconsciousness, supporting their use as practical on-site welfare indicators. At the lowest voltage (80 V), birds with higher abdominal fat percentages were more likely to be effectively stunned. In contrast, no statistically significant associations between abdominal fat percentage and stunning effectiveness were observed at 100–160 V. However, higher voltages were also associated with an increased prevalence and severity of carcass defects. These findings suggest that stunning conditions or commercial broilers may not ensure effective unconsciousness in Taiwanese red-feathered chickens. Corneal reflex and spontaneous eye blinking provide reliable, welfare-relevant indicators of unconsciousness under field conditions. Electrical settings must be carefully balanced to achieve effective stunning while minimising adverse welfare outcomes associated with excessive neuro-muscular responses. Full article

Weight stigma often appears in research as individual prejudice and its interpersonal harms, yet women’s accounts show that devaluation also persists through routine, socially organized evaluation. This article examines weight stigma through visibility by treating looking as a patterned interpretive practice with moral and relational consequences. We conducted three in-person focus groups with women in Chile who self-identified as fat (N = 20) in Santiago, Coquimbo, and Valdivia between April and September 2024 and analyzed the data using reflexive thematic analysis. Participants described visibility as a shifting landscape of evaluative looks that travel across everyday domains while retaining recognizable moral logics. We develop a typology of four gazes: an expulsive/invisibilizing gaze that denies fit and belonging; a disciplinary gaze that frames correction as care and produces self-surveillance; a derisive gaze that punishes through contempt; and a brave gaze that offers conditional recognition by praising ordinary presence as exceptional. Women located these gazes in ordinary interactions and in infrastructures that stabilize evaluation, including public seating norms, retail sizing routines, clinical measurement, mirrors, and photographic and digital practices. These findings suggest that reducing weight stigma requires changing not only attitudes but also the scripts and material arrangements that organize visibility and make evaluation routine. Full article

Background/Objectives: Autism research has often interpreted autistic sociality through neurotypical norms, limiting ecological accounts of autistic meaning-making and context-sensitive support needs. Social virtual environments (SVEs), such as VRChat, allow modulation of sensory exposure, social distance, and participation pace, potentially enabling autistic-led interaction with greater autonomy and predictability. This study examined how autistic young adults co-construct meanings around social interaction, identity, and self-regulation in peer-led discussions within an SVE; identified context-sensitive processes relevant to well-being; and evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of SVEs as a participatory research setting. Methods: Sixteen autistic young adults (18–38 years; DSM-5-TR, Level 1) participated in nine remote sessions conducted in VRChat, coordinated via a co-designed Discord server. The peer-led discussions were audio-video recorded, transcribed, and anonymized. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, combining inductive session-level coding, cross-session thematic clustering, and participatory refinement with community partners. Results: Autistic experience was framed as a context-dependent negotiation of interpretive risk, interactional workload, masking-related energy costs, and epistemic injustice, alongside future-oriented accounts emphasizing access, dignity, and systemic redesign. Observational memos documented multimodal participation, distributed peer facilitation, and accessibility-relevant sensitivities to environmental stability. Community partners reported positive experiences and supported the acceptability of private-world VRChat sessions. Conclusions: Peer-led discussions in an SVE can support ecologically grounded, participant-centered qualitative research, offering methodological opportunities to study autistic meaning-making under conditions that reduce demands and risks. Full article

The global tourism industry is entering a phygital era, prompting renewed examination of the metaverse as an extension rather than a substitute for physical travel. This study investigates how metaverse technology operates across the Phygital Customer Journey within the Thai tourism context. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 12 experts from academic, development, and policy sectors, the data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings indicate that the metaverse assumes its most structurally significant role during the pre-trip phase. Immersive previews were described as recalibrating perceived risk by enabling advance assessment of accessibility, spatial configuration, and environmental conditions prior to commitment. This staged risk-calibration process operates through three interrelated mechanisms: Sensory Bridging, Psychological Risk Mitigation, and Physical Feasibility Testing, which are particularly relevant for secondary tourism destinations and demographic aging contexts. Building on these patterns, the study advances a four-layer architectural framework as an interpretive synthesis. Within this framework, the metaverse functions as a transactional and coordination layer that integrates booking systems, AI-enabled services, and real-time infrastructural data supported by IoT and Blockchain. The analysis further suggests that the state may assume an enabling role as an Infrastructure Architect through the development of a National Digital Highway and regulatory sandbox arrangements for SMEs. Sustainable adoption depends on hardware-agnostic, mobile-centric accessibility to mitigate digital exclusion. While grounded in Thailand, the framework offers analytical relevance for destinations facing comparable infrastructural and demographic conditions. Full article

We characterize weak compactness in the Sobolev space $W^{k,\infty }\left(\mathrm{\Omega }\right)$. For non-reflexive spaces like $W^{k,\infty }$, criteria beyond boundedness are required. By exploiting the von Neumann algebra structure of $L^{\infty }$ via Gelfand duality, we establish a unified theory. Our main result is a necessary and sufficient condition: a subset is relatively weakly compact if and only if it is bounded and its weak derivatives up to order k have uniformly small oscillation on a finite measurable partition of $\mathrm{\Omega }$. This provides a tool for analyzing nonlinear problems in these spaces. Full article

Epistemology underpins the scientific method by clarifying what counts as knowledge, which forms of evidence are admissible, and how procedures can legitimately support conclusions. Under accelerated publishing conditions, these assumptions are often left implicit, which can weaken the inferential coherence of peer-reviewed manuscripts. This study aimed to model reviewers’ perceived epistemological deficiencies as a multidimensional construct with an overarching global component. A 14-item instrument covering four latent domains was administered to 183 peer reviewers from a Latin American academic network. A second-order structural equation model was estimated using SEM with DWLS (lavaan). The model showed excellent fit (CFI ≈ 1.00; RMSEA = 0.000; SRMR = 0.033) and strong factor loadings, indicating a coherent global factor alongside distinct domain-specific components. Reviewers’ accumulated experience was positively associated with the global factor (β = 0.047; p = 0.013), whereas the recent volume of reviews was not statistically significant (p = 0.254). These results suggest that epistemological scrutiny may reflect more stable evaluative competencies than short-term reviewing activity. The instrument can inform editorial rubrics and reviewer training aimed at strengthening problem–theory–method coherence and reflexive methodological justification. Because the measure captures perceptions within a single regional network, further validation across disciplines and cultural contexts is recommended. Full article

Background/Objectives: Visual motion is a powerful contributor to postural control, yet its influence on modulation of the Ia afferent pathway remains to be confirmed. This study investigated whether optic-flow simulating self-motion modulates the soleus Hoffmann (H) reflex recorded in the soleus during upright stance in immersive virtual reality. Methods: Fourteen healthy adults completed two experimental sessions, each comprising four visual conditions of increasing optic-flow complexity. In one session, participants stood freely on a force platform (free standing) whereas in the other, postural sways were restricted (supported standing). Surface EMG, posterior tibial nerve stimulation, and force-platform recordings were collected. Results: During free standing, optic flow substantially increased postural sway [F(3,13) = 15.7, p < 0.001, η² = 0.55], with higher sway in all optic-flow conditions (~13 mm/s) compared with static viewing (~10 mm/s). In contrast, soleus H-reflex amplitude was not modulated by optic flow [F(3,13) = 0.2, p = 0.57], remaining stable across conditions (~44% M_max). Background EMG and CoP position preceding stimulation were similar across conditions. In supported standing, used to isolate the effect of optic flow independently to postural control, H-reflex amplitude again showed no condition effect [F(3,13) = 0.2, p = 0.86]. Conclusions: These findings indicate that postural perturbation induced by optic flow was not accompanied by a modulation of the Ia afferent-motoneuron transmission of the soleus under the used experimental conditions. The results suggest that postural control under virtual optic flow is mediated predominantly by supraspinal sensory-integration mechanisms, rather than by modulation of the Ia-monosynaptic reflex pathway. Full article

Background/Objectives: Behaviours that challenge (BtC) are common in people with dementia. International guidelines recommend using non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) as first-line treatments. A promising training package that provides a framework for delivering NPIs is “Communication and Interaction Training” (CAIT); this programme has received national recognition within the UK. Our study aimed to explore staff’s perceptions of the effect of CAIT on their understanding and responses to the behaviours and emotions of people with dementia. The study also sought to further understand how CAIT worked and the conditions which help implement it. Methods: Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse interviews with 11 staff who had been trained in the use of CAIT and then attempted to implement the contents of the training in clinical settings. Results: Six main themes emerged regarding the impact of the training: enhancing understanding, transforming interactions, skills development, accessible and flexible, socio-cultural change enablers, and obstacles in training. CAIT was viewed positively by the participants and was perceived to improve their knowledge, attitudes and skills. Conclusions: The positive findings are consistent with previous studies on CAIT and its current use in guiding training programmes in the UK. Implications for the delivery of CAIT are discussed, as well as suggestions for further trials of the programme. Full article

Norwegian early childhood education and care (ECEC) is increasingly shaped by cultural diversity, raising questions of justice regarding how children and parents, particularly those from refugee and other minority backgrounds, are recognised as equal participants in the institutional community. This article develops a conceptual framework of just recognition as professional practice through a meta-ethnographic synthesis of three qualitative studies conducted in Norwegian ECEC. The studies examine ECEC professionals’ constructions of diversity, refugee parents’ experiences, and negotiations within home–ECEC partnerships. Drawing on theories of recognition, participatory parity, and democratic equality, this article conceptualises diversity as recognition-in-relation and analyses how justice is enacted in everyday pedagogical and relational practices. The synthesis identifies three interlinked mechanisms, equality, adaptation, and reflexivity, through which recognition and misrecognition are produced across relational levels. While equality is often enacted as sameness, adaptation may be asymmetrically distributed, and reflexivity emerges as a crucial professional practice for rendering institutional norms visible and open to negotiation. This article argues that everyday pedagogical work and home–ECEC partnerships constitute key sites where the conditions for equal standing and participatory parity are either enabled or constrained. By shifting attention from inclusion as access to justice as enacted practice, the study contributes a relational and institutional framework for analysing cultural diversity in ECEC. Full article

University mathematics-support programs rarely test their theoretical foundations against student evidence, particularly in the Global South. This study addresses that gap by analyzing how students’ experiences in Mathematical Thinking Workshops (MTWs) at a South African university confirm, nuance, or challenge assumptions the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), Action–Process–Object–Schema (APOS) theory, Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), and constructivism. We conducted a qualitative secondary analysis of six focus-group interviews (n = 17), using abductive reflexive thematic analysis and an Assumption–Indicator–Evidence matrix that linked design rationales to student narratives. Student accounts strongly supported ZPD, with facilitation and peer norms fostering psychological safety and risk-taking, while also showing that equitable participation required explicit role-rotation routines. APOS-informed task sequencing enabled coordination across representations but operated recursively, with students calling for planned revisiting sessions to consolidate difficult ideas. CLT claims were affirmed where venue conditions and timing inflated extraneous load, highlighting the need for short debriefs and load-aware logistics. Constructivist activity fostered belonging, confidence, and more social views of mathematics but generated uncertainty when tasks ended without brief closure. We conclude by proposing context-aware refinements to these frameworks and outlining a replicable routine for testing educational theory through student evidence. Full article

This study evaluates the dynamics of the human pupillary reflex in response to a stepped blue light stimulus (465 nm) in young adults residing at high altitude (3400 m above sea level). High-resolution video sequences of three participants were analyzed using four classical image segmentation techniques: K-Means, Otsu, fixed binary threshold, and multi-channel RGB threshold. Rather than proposing new algorithms, this work evaluates the technical feasibility and stability of computationally lightweight segmentation approaches under controlled lighting conditions and with low-cost hardware constraints. Among the methods evaluated, fixed binary thresholding showed stable temporal behavior and minimal computational complexity within the experimental setup. The results show a consistent contraction–plateau–recovery pattern across all participants, with representative contraction, stabilization, and recovery times of 1.89 s, 0.41 s, and 2.33 s, respectively. Although limited by the small sample size, these findings support the feasibility of implementing simplified segmentation strategies for pupillometry in resource-limited settings. Full article

Background: The Sysmex XN series (XN-1000 and XN-9100, Sysmex Corporation, Kobe, Japan) represents a latest-generation automated hematology platform integrating fluorescence-based technologies and multi-channel analysis (WDF and WPC) to improve leukocyte characterization. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the Sysmex XN series in detecting leukocyte abnormalities flagged during routine complete blood count analysis in a large cohort of healthy donors, using morphological assessment and flow cytometry as confirmatory methods. Methods: Approximately 8000 healthy blood donors from the AOU Meyer Transfusion Centre were evaluated between 2021 and 2024. All samples underwent CBC analysis using the XN-1000 and XN-9100 analyzers with the WDF channel. Samples showing WBC-related flags were subjected to reflex testing with the WPC channel, followed by digital blood smear review using the DI-60 system (CellaVision, Lund, Sweden) and flow cytometric immunophenotyping. Results: WDF flags for “blasts/abnormal lymphocytes” were identified in 23 samples. Two samples were negative on WPC analysis as well as on morphological and flow cytometric evaluation. Among the remaining cases, WPC analysis identified flags for abnormal lymphocytes, atypical lymphocytes, or blasts, which were variably associated with reactive changes, transient immune activation, or clonal lymphoproliferative conditions. In one donor, monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis was diagnosed by flow cytometry. Overall, reactive morphological features confirmed by flow cytometry were observed in approximately 50% of flagged cases. Conclusions: WPC analysis provides relevant additional diagnostic information and demonstrates higher specificity compared with the WDF channel alone; however, it does not fully resolve all instrument-generated flags, confirming the essential role of morphological assessment. Interestingly, the frequent occurrence of inflammatory profiles in recently vaccinated donors suggests that transient immune activation may influence leukocyte flagging. Larger studies are warranted to further investigate this association and to optimize the diagnostic performance of the WPC channel in donor screening. Full article

Background/Objectives. Older adults in under-resourced communities experience high levels of social isolation, chronic illness, and reduced access to healthcare, which can undermine mental well-being. Open Source Wellness’s Community As Medicine^® (CAM) program is an evidence-based, community-delivered, clinically integrated program that combines trauma-informed, culturally-relevant, experiential group health coaching with social connection to improve mental and physical well-being. This qualitative study, conducted in early 2025, examined how participation in CAM supports mental well-being among older adults (age 65+) in under-resourced communities who are managing chronic physical and mental health challenges. Methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants who completed CAM. Transcripts were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis to explore relational and experiential processes associated with improved well-being. Findings. Participants entered CAM with internalized ageist beliefs and low expectations for personal change. As they engaged in new behaviors, experienced successes, and observed similar progress among peers, they gained motivation, confidence, and a sense of control. Four interconnected themes appear to explain the mechanisms through which CAM supports mental well-being: (1) belonging and inclusion through trust and safety; (2) personal accountability through relational accountability; (3) self-efficacy through social learning and reciprocal support; and (4) agency through positive actions. Conclusions. Findings suggest that CAM supports mental well-being by creating conditions that help older adults overcome internalized ageism and feel connected, capable, and in control of their lives. These results identify actionable strategies that community organizations and health systems can adapt to support mental well-being for older adults in under-resourced communities. Full article