Search Results (2,791)

Background/Objectives: The organic food market has grown substantially in recent years, yet the psychological antecedents that shape consumer attitudes and purchase intentions in emerging markets remain underexplored. This study examines how environmental, health, and social consciousness influence consumer attitudes toward organic food, and how those attitudes subsequently affect purchase intention in the Chilean context. Methods: Data were collected via an online survey administered to 255 Chilean consumers using non-probabilistic convenience and snowball sampling. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed using SmartPLS, with bootstrapping of 5000 subsamples to test four hypothesized relationships: that environmental, health, and social consciousness each positively affect the attitude toward organic food, and that attitude, in turn, positively affects purchase intention. Results: All four hypotheses were supported. Social consciousness emerged as the strongest predictor of attitude (β = 0.385, p < 0.001), followed by environmental consciousness (β = 0.314, p < 0.001) and health consciousness (β = 0.165, p = 0.005). Attitude demonstrated a strong effect on purchase intention (β = 0.736, p < 0.001), explaining 54.1% of its variance. The three consciousness dimensions jointly explained 57.3% of the variance in attitude. Conclusions: The findings confirm that consumer attitude functions as a critical gateway through which consciousness-based motivations translate into organic food purchase intentions. Social and environmental considerations outweigh health-related concerns in driving attitudes in this context, suggesting that marketing strategies for organic food in Latin America should emphasize community and environmental values alongside individual health benefits. Full article

Children’s affinity for natural elements, or biophilic preferences, has gained increasing recognition as a cornerstone of family-centered sustainability. This study examines how parental factors, specifically environmental attitudes and in-home biophilic design plus guidance, directly shape children’s preference for nature-infused environments. A cross-sectional survey (N = 397) for parents collected data on household greenery, animal care, parental attitudes toward environmental responsibility, and the degree of child involvement with natural elements. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the analysis identified proactive parental mindsets and frequent biophilic home modifications as significant predictors of stronger child affinity for plants, water features, and other nature-inspired components. The findings highlight several key parental and environmental factors that contribute to the development of children’s biophilic preferences, underscoring the importance of coordinated efforts among families, communities, and policymakers to nurture children’s environmental consciousness. By highlighting how indoor greenery, small-scale animal care, and intentional parental support can foster early engagement with nature, this research offers fresh insights into the synergy between biophilic design and sustainable family practices. Emphasizing the potential role of home-based natural elements in enhancing children’s environmental awareness, the study concludes that nature-rich living spaces and holistic sustainability interventions are essential for empowering the next generation to shape a more sustainable future. Full article

The developments in mathematics in the nineteenth century, in particular non-Euclidean geometry, which was not concerned with flat space, but with curvature, led at the end of the century and the beginning of the next one to much discussion of and experiments with the fourth dimension. The idea of a fourth dimension played a major role in the arts. In literature the Symbolists were convinced that there existed a “higher” reality behind the visible one and tried to suggest it in their poetry. In pictorial art and sculpture completely new forms emerged that distorted reality and in that way showed that one had to look at the world in a different way; there was something beyond the usual three dimensions. Many artists consciously tried to visualize this “beyondness”, the fourth dimension. The followers of the idea of a higher reality considered the fourth dimension as time, most artists as space. Much influence in the discussion about the fourth dimension had Charles Howard Hinton and, especially in Russia, Pyotr Ouspensky; both wrote a book entitled The Fourth Dimension (1904 and 1909, respectively), in which they propagated their ideas. The Futurist poet Velimir Klebnikov did not explicitly mention the fourth dimension in his work, but in view of his scientific interests (he studied mathematics at the University of Kazan, one of whose most celebrated scientists was Nikolai Lobachevsky, the founder of non-Euclidean geometry) and his close ties with the avant-garde painters, he was undoubtedly aware of the ideas about the fourth dimension in his time. Khlebnikov compared himself with Lobachevsky and used his geometry in his own description of the cities of the future. With his experiments with language and numerals he tried to find a new meaning behind the usual ones, and he made endless calculations to determine the laws of time: there must be some principle that rules the continuous stream of events. Establishing this principle, one might transcend history and ultimately find a solution for fate and death. His entire work is devoted to the search of a new dimension. Full article

Background: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute a large portion of the industrial energy demand in the emerging economies, but their shift to renewable energy is not well comprehended at the firm level. Bangladesh is a special case, since the country has adopted national commitments to Sustainable Development Goal 7 on clean energy, but the uptake of renewable energy by SMEs remains minimal due to complex socio-economic factors. Most of the literature has concentrated on household access to energy or national policy models, leaving a gap in empirically validated models of firm-level adoption in the manufacturing sector. Method: Based on the diffusion of innovation theory, institutional theory, and the resource-based view, this research paper formulates and empirically verifies a combined socio-economic model of renewable energy adoption. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze a cross-sectional survey of 426 owners and managers of manufacturing SMEs in Bangladesh’s textile and food processing sub-sectors. Findings: Four out of five hypothesized direct relationships were supported. The most important drivers were environmental orientation (β = 0.467, p < 0.001, f² = 0.413), market competitiveness (β = 0.287, p < 0.001, f² = 0.413), policy and institutional factors (β = 0.211, p < 0.001, f² = 0.413), and access to finance (β = 0.096, p = 0.004). Perceptions of cost did not become significant (β= −0.036, p = 0.279). Top management support significantly and negatively moderated the relationship between environmental orientation and adoption (β = −0.093, p = 0.003), possibly because it moderates the substitution mechanism in SME decision-making, which is highly centralized. The model accounted for 64.5% of the variation in renewable energy adoption (R² = 0.645). Conclusion: The results show that attitudinal and institutional factors tend to be more important than financial barriers in determining SMEs’ energy transitions. Environmental consciousness, market incentives, and streamlined institutional access should be the focus of policy interventions to hasten inclusive low-carbon transitions in emerging manufacturing economies. Full article

This article investigates the relevance of selected and adapted representations of Krishna from the broader ISKCON tradition for sustainable and self-sufficient practices within Krishna Valley. Krishna Valley is an ISKCON community established in 1993 in the remote areas of Hungary, and it covers 300 hectares. As a self-sufficient and sustainable community, it is part of the Global Environmental Network, and as an ISKCON community, it belongs to the global movement of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The synchronic interconnections of Krishna Valley as an ecovillage and as a religious place intertwine in the same place. In this article, Krishna Valley serves as an explanatory case study to investigate the relevance of ISKCON religious representations for ecological imagination: the process of perceiving relationships through the use of metaphors, images, narratives, symbols, and sematic frames that are central to and constitutive of human ecological thinking. This study uses two units of analysis (cow service and water management) to explore how in Krishna Valley ecological imagination takes shape in the interaction between local sustainable and self-sufficient practices and specific religious representations that are part of the ISKCON tradition. By looking at how the community interprets and treats cows and water pollution from a religious and environmental perspective, this case study answers the question of how ecovillages might benefit from religion-based ecological imagination for their sustainable livelihoods. Full article

The Mediterranean is being recognized as a helpful frame of reference for scholarship in various academic disciplines focusing on that area of the world. Some of these focus on the sea, while others focus on the countries surrounding it. Proponents laud the commonalities and unities that such an approach foregrounds, as well as the new ways of looking at related cultures and cultural products. At the same time, however, scholars recognize a number of challenges that come with this approach, particularly regarding the balance of micro and macro levels of analysis. Given these challenges, as well as the importance of local contexts for understanding aspects of time and agency in most works of art and architecture, how useful might such a lens be for scholars of medieval art and architecture in the region? How might we capitalize on the benefits of a Mediterranean frame of reference while also allowing for its challenges to be addressed? In response to these questions, consumption is suggested as a framework of analysis. Scholars of certain aspects of consumption have sought to balance similar tensions and their studies provide useful insights into how the local and the regional, the micro and the macro, might be effectively balanced. Such a consciously multiscale approach has the potential to help us see how the local and the Mediterranean are intertwined. In this way, thinking about certain aspects of medieval Mediterranean art via a lens of consumption can help us to make sense of how it reflects some of the complexities of the region. Full article

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) cause significant pediatric morbidity through primary insults and secondary cascades like excitotoxicity, neuroinflammation, and impaired plasticity. Nerve growth factor (NGF) promotes neuroprotection, anti-inflammation, and repair, but delivery challenges persist. This review evaluates preclinical and clinical evidence on intranasal human recombinant NGF (hr-NGF) to enhance neurorepair in pediatric TBI and HIE patients. It aims to clarify the potential of intranasal hr-NGF as part of future multimodal approaches to enhance brain repair and improve functional recovery across the lifespan. Methods: A PRISMA-guided literature search (2000–2025) was conducted across Scopus, PubMed, and Cochrane CENTRAL using terms like “intranasal NGF”, “TBI”, “HIE”, and “pediatric”. Eligible studies involved pediatric brain injury patients receiving NGF, with outcomes via clinical scales, imaging, or EEG. Results: Preclinical models showed that intranasal NGF reduces lesion volume, inflammation, and deficits while boosting angiogenesis and cholinergic function. Clinically, one child with meningitis and five TBI cases exhibited improved consciousness, spasticity, motor scores, cognition, and brain imaging. Three HIE cases gained voluntary movements, expressivity, and perfusion. No adverse events occurred related to hr-NGF administration. Conclusions: Intranasal hr-NGF safely reactivates plasticity in pediatric brain injury, yielding motor, cognitive, and neurophysiological gains. Preliminary data support multimodal use, but randomized trials are needed to optimize protocols and confirm efficacy. Full article

Integrated information theory (IIT) starts from the existence of consciousness and characterizes its essential properties: every experience is intrinsic, specific, unitary, definite, and structured. IIT then formulates existence and its essential properties operationally in terms of cause–effect power of a substrate of units. Here, we address IIT’s operational requirements for existence by considering that, to have cause–effect power, to have it intrinsically, and to have it specifically, substrate units in their actual state must both (i) ensure the intrinsic availability of a repertoire of cause–effect states, and (ii) increase the probability of a specific cause–effect state. We showed previously that requirement (ii) can be assessed by the intrinsic difference of a state’s probability from maximal differentiation. Here, we show that requirement (i) can be assessed by the intrinsic difference from maximal specification. These points and their consequences for integrated information are illustrated using simple systems of micro units. When applied to macro units and systems of macro units such as neural systems, a tradeoff between differentiation and specification is a necessary condition for intrinsic existence—and therefore, according to IIT, for consciousness. Full article

Centering on the debate over whether Fichte’s philosophy of religion underwent a shift between his early and late periods, existing studies have largely taken changes in terminology and content as their basis, understanding it as a move from an early, practical moral religion to a late, ontological religion; other studies maintain that the late period, with themes such as God, being, and love, transcends and develops the early framework. This paper argues that, once we return to the Jena Wissenschaftslehre’s genetic construction of spiritual freedom, the so-called shift does not hold. Through the logical structure of “absolute I–finite I–feeling,” the Jena Wissenschaftslehre provides a model of how the Absolute manifests itself within finite consciousness and completes its actual manifestation in free action. The early philosophy of religion unfolds the same genetic logic in the structure “God–the finite–faith,” while the structure “being–image–love” in the late philosophy of religion represents not a negation of the early view or a move beyond it, but rather a renewed clarification and interpretation of the same logic of spiritual freedom. Full article

Immersive virtual environments are increasingly investigated as tools capable of modulating conscious experience, yet the specific contribution of graded immersion to altered states of consciousness (ASC), time perception, and cognition remains unclear. The present study examined how different levels of immersion during videogame play influence subjective experience and post-experience cognitive performance. Seventy-two participants played an identical 35 min segment of the videogame Half-Life: Alyx under one of three conditions: desktop PC (low immersion), head-mounted virtual reality (VR; medium immersion), or VR combined with full-body locomotion via an omnidirectional treadmill (high immersion). Following gameplay, participants completed validated measures of presence (IPQ), immersion (IEQ), ASC (5D-ASC), retrospective time estimation, and cognitive flexibility (Stroop task and Alternative Uses Test). Presence was selectively enhanced in VR relative to desktop play, whereas immersion was highest in the VR plus treadmill condition. Specific ASC dimensions related to embodiment and self-experience were selectively elevated in immersive conditions, with the most robust effects observed for disembodiment and positive depersonalization. Retrospective time-estimation accuracy was reduced in the highest immersion condition, indicating increased temporal distortion. Immersive gameplay did not produce widespread changes in executive function. Overall, the findings indicate that immersive virtual reality gameplay selectively alters embodiment-related aspects of conscious experience and retrospective time perception, without broadly changing executive function. Full article

Could there be quantum superpositions of conscious states, as suggested by the Wigner’s friend thought experiment? Mathematical theories of consciousness, notably integrated information theory (IIT), make this question more precise by associating physical systems with both quantitative amounts of consciousness and structural characterizations of conscious states. Motivated by a recent proposal that ties wave-function collapse to integrated information, we construct a simple quantum circuit that would, on that proposal, place a minimal system—a feedback dyad—into a superposition of states that differ in their associated conscious states. This “Schrödinger’s dyad” provides a controlled setting for evaluating a central desideratum of consciousness-based collapse models: that collapse rates depend on how different the experiences in the superposition are. We prove a structural constraint on collapse dynamics of a standard (Lindblad) type: if collapse is governed by too few collapse operators, collapse rates cannot in general be made to depend solely on qualitative differences between conscious states. Avoiding this limitation requires introducing many commuting operators, leading to a rapid proliferation of collapse terms even for very simple systems. This proliferation bears directly on claims that IIT-based collapse theories may be especially experimentally tractable, since the required dynamics becomes highly complex. More generally, the difficulty is not specific to IIT: any Wigner-style collapse theory that distinguishes experiences using rich internal organization (such as neural connectivity in addition to neural state) will face a comparable explosion in dynamical complexity. Full article

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has gained immense importance due to the global political call for sustainable development. At the same time, the devastating effects of anthropogenic climate change are increasing every year. Humanity is confronted with a situation of sustainable unsustainability. This contribution argues that current competence-oriented approaches to ESD maintain and reinforce unsustainability. Methodological individualism is identified as a main problem in ESD. Furthermore, the human-nature dualism and the idea of an undifferentiated humanity are discussed as problematic epistemic preconditions in the modern Western mindset. Another problem of ESD approaches is the denial and perpetuation of colonial and imperial orders. With regard to these findings, we discuss ways to overcome epistemic preconditions of ESD. We point to collective consciousness and global solidarity as different modes of living and being that offer decolonial alternatives to a good life. Such a reconceptualization implies a repoliticization of education in times of anthropogenic climate change that focuses on the entanglements in epistemic assumptions and conditions of unsustainability as central reference points. Full article

Consciousness presents a structural puzzle: a unified, context-sensitive, globally integrated mode of experience emerging from distributed neural dynamics. While classical neuroscience has mapped synaptic, oscillatory, and network-level mechanisms with increasing precision, debate persists as to whether classical formalisms fully capture the integrative and contextual features of conscious processing. This review examines whether quantum principles offer explanatory leverage in two distinct senses: as formal mathematical frameworks for modeling contextual cognition, and as mechanistic hypotheses proposing biologically instantiated non-classical states. We surveyed empirical and theoretical developments spanning zero-quantum-coherence in MRI signals, entanglement-structured learning paradigms, quantum-inspired computational models, and proposed neural substrates, including microtubules, nuclear spins, and photonic architectures. Although certain findings have been interpreted as consistent with a non-classical structure, no study to date has demonstrated entanglement, long-lived coherence, or collapse dynamics in neural tissue under operational criteria comparable to those used in controlled quantum systems. Replication remains limited, biological entanglement witnesses are not yet established, and nonlinear classical dynamics can reproduce many putative quantum signatures. Accordingly, the decisive question is not whether the brain is quantum, but whether its dynamics exceed the explanatory reach of rigorously defined classical models. Progress hinges on replication, adversarial scrutiny, and operational criteria precise enough to discriminate genuine non-classical correlations from classical complexity. Whether quantum mechanisms ultimately prove necessary or refined classical models remain sufficient, this inquiry compels a deeper understanding of integration, contextuality, and the physical constraints shaping conscious experience. Full article

The effectiveness of social engineering schemes, such as phishing, depends significantly on the victim’s emotional state, which is intentionally moved by the attacker toward fear, sadness, and disgust through time pressure, threats, or messages about potential losses, which weaken cognitive control. EEG datasets that simultaneously contain basic emotions and realistic phishing scenarios are lacking. Therefore, in some cases, stress-based biophysiological datasets obtained using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) are used for neurophishing modeling. The TSST exhibits phasic dynamics: a transition from a neutral state to a peak in fear, followed by an increase in sadness and a partial recovery to a neutral state, highlighting fear and sadness as key components of social stress. The interval of maximum fear probability is interpreted as the window of greatest vulnerability to phishing, when it is critical to consciously pause, verify information across independent channels, and avoid impulsive actions. The suggested hybrid neural network model, WS-KAN-EEGNet, is trained on five emotions and applied to these recordings, generating temporal trajectories of state probabilities with high accuracy, forming a reliable basis for future industrial solutions to ensure a secure digital space. Full article

Background: Port-a-catheter (PAC) placement is a common procedure in oncology that, despite local anaesthesia, can induce patient discomfort, procedural pain, and anxiety. Virtual reality hypnosis (VRH), combining immersive virtual reality with clinical hypnosis, has been proposed as a non-pharmacological adjunct to reduce peri-procedural distress. Objectives: This pilot study aimed to explore the suitability of VRH during PAC placement and its potential effects on pain, anxiety, and VRH-related experiences, while investigating psychological variables associated with VRH engagement. Methods: In this single-arm interventional monocentric prospective pilot study, twenty oncology patients undergoing first-time elective PAC placement received a VRH intervention delivered via a medical-grade head-mounted display throughout the procedure. Pain, anxiety, and VRH-related dimensions—including absorption, dissociation, automaticity, arousal, and sense of presence—were assessed pre- and post-procedure using self-reported numerical rating scales and questionnaires. Non-parametric Wilcoxon tests evaluated pre–post changes, and correlational analyses (Pearson’s and Spearman’s when necessary) explored associations between variables. Results: VRH was well tolerated by most participants, although three patients required additional pharmacological support, and four could not complete the session due to intolerance or technical issues. Anxiety scores decreased significantly following VRH, whereas pain showed a non-significant trend toward reduction. Post-procedural absorption and dissociation were positively associated with presence, and higher absorption traits were linked to greater immersive engagement and prior VR/hypnosis experience. Cybersickness was negatively associated with absorption. Older age was correlated with lower post-procedural pain, and females reported higher state anxiety. Conclusions: In this pilot, VRH was feasible, well tolerated, and associated with a significant exploratory reduction in procedural state anxiety. Given the single-arm design, these findings constitute directional evidence warranting controlled trial evaluation rather than proof of efficacy. These preliminary results support the rationale for randomised controlled trials to evaluate VRH efficacy, underlying mechanisms, and potential role as a non-pharmacological adjunct in oncology perioperative care. Full article