Search Results (167)

The article presents a systematic and critical theoretical–methodological review and conceptual synthesis of the region as a fundamental analytical category and the central subject matter of regional geography. The primary objective of the study is to critically re-examine and conceptually redefine the region through an ontological and epistemological analysis of classical and contemporary geographical paradigms. The study is based on a qualitative interpretative methodology that combines analytical–synthetic, historical–genetic, comparative, critical, and conceptual approaches in order to examine the ontological and epistemological foundations of the region within classical and contemporary geographical thought. The region is conceptualized as a complex, multilayered, and dynamic socio-spatial entity whose ontological status has continuously evolved—from the essentialist notion of an objective spatial reality characteristic of classical geographic paradigms toward a relational and constructivist concept shaped by the interaction of social practices, political processes, and identity articulations within contemporary theoretical frameworks. Attention is also given to the epistemological foundations of regional knowledge, linking various modalities of the production and interpretation of scientific knowledge. Furthermore, the paper examines the roles of power, knowledge, identity, and institutionalization in the formation of regions, as well as the significance of centripetal and centrifugal forces in maintaining or destabilizing regional coherence. The research challenges traditional concepts of the region and proposes its redefinition in accordance with contemporary approaches that conceptualize it as an open, fluid, and context-dependent analytical framework. In conclusion, from the perspective of new regional geography, the region is interpreted as an emergent relational configuration whose understanding requires a broad interdisciplinary and critical approach. Full article

Hierarchical Public Sector Organizations (PSOs), particularly military organizations, face persistent challenges in sustaining innovation due to structural rigidity, hierarchical control, and embedded resistance to change. While existing literature explains why innovation emerges and why it is resisted, significantly less attention has been devoted to understanding how innovation becomes institutionalized as a sustained organizational capability. This study addresses this gap by introducing the Bi-focal Innovation Contagion Model (BICM), an agent-based framework that conceptualizes innovation diffusion and resistance as a co-evolutionary “tug-of-war” between competing organizational forces. The model integrates top-down governance mechanisms and bottom-up innovation processes, capturing how heterogeneous actors interact within hierarchical systems to shape the diffusion, assimilation, and stabilization of innovation over time. Using the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as an empirical source case, the model explores how Innovation Management Systems (IMS) may be designed to support the institutionalization of innovation as a self-sustaining organizational capability within hierarchical PSOs. Simulation results suggest that hybrid innovation architectures may better sustain innovation across varying leadership conditions. This occurs when centralized strategic coordination is combined with decentralized innovation activity and supported by mature innovation agents with sufficient centrality and hierarchical reinforcement. The findings highlight the critical role of IMS as an organizational architecture for achieving anti-fragility, enabling innovation dynamics to persist, adapt, and strengthen in the face of uncertainty, leadership turnover, and shifting strategic priorities. By integrating agent-based modeling with organizational theory, this study contributes a dynamic framework for understanding and designing sustainable innovation systems in hierarchical PSOs. Full article

Post-war Aleppo is often framed through destruction, legal constraints, and the technical demands of reconstruction. This article challenges that assumption by re-reading Aleppo’s pre-2011 municipal vision as an analytical resource for post-war recovery. The study adopts a qualitative interpretive methodology based on municipal archival material, including the City Council work programme, strategic planning presentations, project documents, and materials related to the City Development Strategy, Madinatuna initiative, the old city, Bab Antakiya, and major public-space and service initiatives. The analysis followed three steps: identifying repeated municipal priorities and planning concepts; organizing them into thematic axes; and interpreting flagship projects as spatial expressions of a broader municipal vision. To assess post-war relevance, the archive is also read against evidence of damage, displacement, urban functionality, and heritage loss. The results show that Aleppo’s pre-2011 municipal vision can be reconstructed through six interrelated axes: strategic urban development and managed growth; the old city as a living urban fabric; urban repair in the city centre; mobility and accessibility; culture and social development; and development partnerships and international cooperation. The findings reveal that these axes formed a partially integrated municipal urbanism rather than isolated projects, while flagship interventions such as Bab Antakiya, the Green Path, the river corridor, and the Citadel surroundings materialized this logic. The study also finds that this vision remained institutionally vulnerable because of political centralization and limited municipal autonomy. It concludes that post-war recovery should build on critical continuity rather than reconstruction from scratch. Full article

Interpreting doping prevalence estimates generated through indirect estimation models (IEMs) remains challenging for sport policy and governance due to the wide variation in reported rates and methodological complexity. In this study, we combined a critical appraisal of the methodological and epistemic developments of IEM applications to doping prevalence with a bibliometric analysis of publication trends, citation patterns, and collaboration networks, using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design. Across 52 records published between 2002 and 2026, this study maps the scientific landscape of IEM-based doping prevalence research. Findings show that IEM-based prevalence research is methodologically sophisticated yet institutionally dispersed and largely Eurocentric, reflecting a field still consolidating its standards and disciplinary identity. Over time, the focus has shifted from reporting prevalence rates to methodological critique and re-analysis of existing datasets. Reported prevalence estimates, ranging from 0 to 57.1%, are highly sensitive to modelling assumptions about athlete behaviour in complex survey environments. While this trend strengthens rigour, it also complicates evidence synthesis for policy actors and risks undermining trust in IEM-based estimates if poorly communicated. Anti-doping organisations and researchers should treat IEM-derived prevalence as bounded indicators rather than definitive rates and integrate prevalence evidence with contextual data for transparent policy and public communication. Full article

Higher education institutions face the persistent challenge of student attrition, a critical risk node within the educational supply chain (ESC). This study adopts a supply chain management (SCM) perspective to apply artificial intelligence (AI) for sustainable transformation of the ESC and evaluates an early warning system (EWS) for student performance prediction on a single programming course at Tamkang University. Learning trajectory data from 188 students across four semesters (90 for training, 98 for temporal validation; 30 fail cases in total) were collected from the iClass learning management system. To match the operational goal of the EWS—maximizing detection of at-risk students—the minority Failclass was treated as the positive class, so that recall directly measures sensitivity to at-risk cases. Three models were compared under a 5-seed protocol with time-masking to prevent future-week leakage: Random Forest (RF) with SMOTE, GRU, and LSTM. Averaged across weeks 6–16 and both validation semesters, RF achieved an accuracy 85.59%, a Fail-recall 91.19%, a precision 58.89%, and an F1 70.36%, already providing reliable warning at Week 6 (Fail-recall 87.86%). Under the same protocol LSTM and GRU collapsed to the majority class during weeks 6–10 (Fail-recall 0–42%), yielding higher headline accuracy but substantially lower sensitivity; they became usable only from Week 14 onwards (LSTM Fail-recall 80.00% at Week 14, 82.86% at Week 16). A Wilcoxon test on Cohen’s d over 90 (week×feature) pairs showed that cumulative features exhibit larger, not smaller, between-class separation than original features ($\left|d\right|$ 0.717 vs. 0.192; $p<0.001$), indicating that the original-vs-cumulative trade-off is one of sensitivity versus precision rather than information dilution. As design-level companions to these empirical results, the study also proposes a three-tier institutionalization framework and a four-dimensional impact assessment framework; these are offered as implementation blueprints rather than empirically validated outcomes. The contributions of this paper are operational rather than methodologically novel: (i) a reproducible EWS benchmark on a small, imbalanced ESC dataset, including a diagnosis of LSTM/GRU’s early-week majority-class collapse under naive augmentation, and (ii) design-level institutionalisation and impact-assessment scaffolding offered as a template for subsequent institutional pilots, not as empirically validated outcomes of the present study. Full article

Environmental co-governance depends not only on the local stability of collaboration but also on whether ENGO-based collaborative participation is attainable from a broad range of initial conditions. This study develops a tripartite evolutionary game model involving local governments, environmental NGOs (ENGOs), and the public, and uses basin-of-attraction analysis to examine the global attainability of high-participation environmental co-governance. The model combines replicator dynamics, Jacobian-based local stability analysis, threshold conditions, numerical simulation, and basin-of-attraction estimation. The results show that collaborative stability is conditional: high-participation co-governance emerges only when institutional support, ENGO participation incentives, and public cooperation conditions jointly exceed critical thresholds. Institutional support is more effective when it improves coordination capacity and reduces implementation friction, whereas unconditional subsidies have ambiguous effects because they increase ENGO incentives while also reducing the government’s relative payoff from strong support. Public cooperation is especially sensitive to participation burden and targeted incentives, while higher passive payoffs for ENGOs enlarge low-participation traps. The analysis is theoretical and simulation-based, informed by China’s institutionally bounded ENGO context, and is not intended as an empirically calibrated prediction for a specific locality. The findings suggest that durable environmental co-governance requires coordinated institutional arrangements that jointly strengthen governmental support, ENGO participation incentives, and public cooperation conditions. Full article

This study analyzes how agri-food misinformation is generated within Nigeria’s agricultural information systems and its influence on climate change adaptation. Using a mixed-methods approach, data from online surveys with 128 farmers and semi-structured interviews with key actors were analyzed through binary logistic regression and thematic analysis. Findings reveal that public extension agents are the most trusted actors, but their infrequent contact with farmers leaves a communication void, which is filled by other farmers within the social group. These informal channels serve as primary conduits for the unintentional spread of agri-food misinformation, often rooted in honest technical misinterpretations. When linked to socio-economic factors such as age and experience, this agri-food misinformation negatively influences adaptation decisions, leading farmers to abandon resilient practices like crop rotation and cover cropping during critical climate shocks. The study concludes that farmers are central, though unintentional, actors in the creation of agri-food misinformation. Addressing this challenge requires a coordinated agricultural information system that prioritizes direct communication, institutionalizes verification processes, and enhances farmers’ capacity to validate formal information. Full article

Climate change poses accelerating and intensifying threats to cultural heritage worldwide, necessitating urgent and coordinated state-level responses. This study critically examines China’s governance framework for climate adaptation of cultural heritage, identifying a critical policy misalignment: although relevant legal and governance instruments—spanning cultural heritage protection, environmental governance, disaster risk reduction, territorial spatial planning, and climate action systems—are nominally in place, they remain profoundly fragmented in practice, resulting in operational inefficiency that severely constrains effective adaptation. To address this, the paper argues for a fundamental paradigm shift from static preservation to dynamic adaptation. It proposes a reform pathway centered on three pillars: reconceptualizing heritage from static preservation to dynamic adaptation, institutionalizing cross-departmental cooperation, and integrating systemic adaptation tools into planning and decision-making. The ultimate objective is to establish an adaptive governance system capable of responding flexibly to climate impacts through interdisciplinary coordination. This transformation is framed as a critical strategic imperative, essential for ensuring the long-term resilience of cultural heritage and civilizational continuity in a warming world. Full article

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how STEM graduate students conceptualized problems that undergird a negative departmental racial climate and explore which policies and practices these students recognized as potential levers for change. Using a generic qualitative inquiry (GQI) approach, we conducted eight focus group meetings and one interview with graduate STEM students (n = 34) at two predominantly white institutions in the United States. Our findings suggest that STEM graduate students identified interpersonal interactions with faculty as a primary driver of negative departmental climate, highlighting a culture of discrimination and lack of accountability. Although students suggested institutionalizing DEI labor and making structural change, they often sought to first improve care for fellow graduate students, feeling ill-equipped to facilitate organizational change. Few research studies address the conceptualization of departmental racial climate from the student perspective and examine their proposed solutions. Using racialized organizations as a guiding theory, this study calls on scholars and practitioners to think more critically about efforts to improve departmental racial climate and address issues of entrenched whiteness. This study suggests that STEM practitioners examine their current departmental processes to enhance racial climate and involve STEM graduate students in valuable ways. Full article

Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) affect the majority of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), substantially increasing caregiver burden and the likelihood of institutionalization. The clinical management of BPSD remains challenging because of its poorly understood pathogenesis, the limited efficacy of conventional interventions, and significant safety concerns associated with current treatments. These limitations underscore the urgent need to identify novel therapeutic targets and develop glia-centered treatment strategies. As essential components of the central nervous system, glial cells maintain neural homeostasis, regulate neurotransmission, and mediate neuroinflammatory responses. Increasing evidence suggests that glial dysfunction contributes to the development of BPSD, thereby linking AD neuropathology and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Aberrant microglial activation, astrocytic dysfunction, and oligodendrocyte injury collectively compromise neural circuit integrity, disrupt neurotransmitter balance, and impair neuron–glia communication, ultimately promoting the progression of diverse BPSDs. Given the critical role of glial cells in regulating neurotransmitter systems, the dysregulation of which is closely associated with BPSD, this review summarizes the involvement of glial cells in BPSD, elucidates the underlying molecular mechanisms, and discusses recent advances in glia-based therapeutic strategies, thereby providing insights into the pathogenesis of BPSD in AD. Full article

Universities operate in an environment characterized by complexity, unpredictable challenges, rapid change and stakeholder demands. University employees are a key resource to achieve the strategic goals of the institution, linked to this complexity. Therefore, a conducive environment that fosters employee engagement in the university is critical. Employee engagement as a concept which encompasses employees’ positive attitude towards the organization and its values, whereby employees continuously improve how they perform their duties to improve organizational effectiveness. Organizational effectiveness is the ability of the organization to proactively adapt and adopt new ideas to continuously improve its operations. The purpose of the study was to explore the application of systems thinking as a strategic approach to foster employee engagement across functional boundaries in universities of technology (UoTs). Employee engagement is central to achieving the strategic goals of Universities of Technology. The problem is a lack of an overarching philosophy to foster employee engagement across the institution. To achieve the objectives of this study, a qualitative research methodology was used, underpinned by a constructivism philosophical worldview. A total of 15 participants were purposively selected from the employees of two universities of technology. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were used to collect data. Thematic analysis was applied to analyze data. The findings revealed that systems thinking would create a conducive environment to foster employee engagement across functional boundaries in the UoTs. In addition, the findings revealed the prevalence of silo practices in universities of technology. Without systems thinking in the institution, departments generally operate in silos and there is no institutionalized philosophy to foster employee engagement, collaboration and knowledge sharing within and beyond functional boundaries. Full article

Background: Agroecology is increasingly discussed as a strategic response to the combined challenges of drought, ecological degradation, and rural vulnerability. In Morocco, this debate has become particularly urgent because agriculture now operates under persistent hydro-climatic stress, declining water availability, and strong territorial disparities between rainfed, irrigated, mountain, and oasis systems. Methods: This article is based on a structured critical review combined with an interpretive bibliometric synthesis of Moroccan and North African literature on agroecology, water stress, agricultural transition, and food-system resilience. The review was organized through conceptual framing, targeted source selection, thematic screening, and integrative synthesis. Results: Morocco is not an agroecological blank slate. Practices compatible with agroecological transition already exist across the country, including crop diversification, legume rotations, crop–livestock integration, biological regulation, organic amendments, and multifunctional production systems. However, previous reviews have mainly documented practices, projects, or sustainability initiatives without fully explaining why these remain weakly connected, poorly scaled, and insufficiently institutionalized under Moroccan conditions. This review shows that the principal barrier is not the absence of relevant practices but the absence of a coherent transition architecture capable of aligning water governance, farm economics, advisory systems, public incentives, territorial differentiation, and market valorization. The Moroccan case reveals a central paradox: agroecology is most necessary precisely where the structural conditions for its adoption are most fragile. To capture this contradiction, the paper proposes the concept of a Hydro-Agroecological Transition Trap, defined as a condition in which worsening water stress simultaneously intensifies the need for agroecological redesign and reduces the ability of farms and institutions to implement it. Conclusions: The manuscript concludes by proposing a six-pillar transition framework for Morocco based on water-smart agroecology, territorially differentiated pathways, participatory innovation, transition finance and risk-sharing, market construction, and multidimensional assessment. The originality of the study lies in shifting the analysis from a shortage of practices to a shortage of transition architecture, thereby contributing to international debates on agroecological scaling under chronic hydro-climatic stress. Full article

This study examines the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as a critical case study, constructing comprehensive evaluation frameworks for both ecological environment and tourism economy. We calculate the integrated development levels of both systems from 2010 to 2024, employing entropy weighting to derive composite development indices, Coupling Coordination Degree modeling to quantify the intensity and quality of system interactions, Relative Development Degree modeling to characterize coordination typologies and developmental asymmetries, and Grey Relational Analysis to identify key driving factors. Our findings reveal that although the coupling coordination of Xinjiang’s tourism–ecological system has transitioned from “mild imbalance” to “marginal coordination”, the system exhibits pronounced vulnerability and persistent “tourism-lag” dynamics. To effectively leverage the current “strategic window” of ecological surplus, we propose a multi-dimensional transformation pathway: (1) enhancing digital resilience through intelligent monitoring systems to mitigate external mobility shocks; (2) optimizing spatial connectivity via a “fast transit, slow travel” infrastructural paradigm; (3) institutionalizing micro-scale ecological governance to position oasis cities as sustainable “ecological gateways”; and (4) catalyzing deep cultural-tourism integration, shifting from scale-driven sightseeing to value-driven Silk Road heritage experiences. These pathways furnish a clear blueprint for Xinjiang to achieve high-quality, sustainable regional tourism development while maintaining its strategic positioning as a northwestern ecological security barrier. Full article

With the ratification of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the safeguarding of intangible cultural practices has been established as a normatively binding framework of international cultural policy. This development has placed the field at the core of contemporary discourses on cultural diversity, sustainable development, and identity revitalization. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the processes of institutionalizing the protection of intangible heritage unfold under complex conditions of asymmetric constitutional division of competences, normative fragmentation, and functional dispersion of responsibilities, resulting in the absence of a coherent and coordinated cultural policy system. The paper focuses on assessing the potential of integrated and strategically structured management of intangible cultural assets to generate synergistic effects between cultural valorization, local sustainability, and transnational recognition. Methodologically, this study applies a critical, comparative-analytical interpretation of the institutional and legal framework of BiH, with special reference to the position of intangible cultural heritage within strategic policy documents. The analysis of the national register, including elements inscribed on the UNESCO lists, underscores the urgent need for intersectoral and transdisciplinary mechanisms to safeguard and valorize cultural heritage as instruments of cultural policy aimed at strengthening collective identity, fostering cultural tourism, and positioning BiH within the global cultural landscape. Full article

This study presents a comprehensive and systematic integrative review of Neighborhood-Level Energy Hubs (NLEHs) as pivotal enablers of sustainable and resilient urban energy systems. In response to accelerating climate pressures, rapid urbanization, and the decentralization of energy production, NLEHs are conceptualized as multi-carrier platforms that enable coordinated energy generation, storage, conversion, and exchange at the neighborhood scale. Utilizing a PRISMA-informed methodology to synthesize 125 core studies, the review systematically evaluates recent advances across five interconnected dimensions: conceptual foundations, system typologies, energy flow architectures, urban integration, and optimization paradigms. Unlike conventional reviews, this study explicitly bridges the critical gap between techno-economic optimization and socio-environmental priorities. A key novelty is the proposed mathematical integration of energy justice and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) directly into optimization algorithms (e.g., MILP and MPC) as dynamic constraints and penalty terms. Particular emphasis is placed on participatory governance models, lifecycle sustainability metrics, and digitalization tools such as AI-driven energy management systems and urban digital twins. The analysis further reveals critical research gaps, highlighting a stark geographic dichotomy between high-tech, market-driven NLEHs in the Global North and resilience-oriented hybrid microgrids in the Global South, alongside the lack of adaptive regulatory frameworks. By proposing a unified Cyber–Physical–Social perspective, this study provides actionable insights for planners, policymakers, and researchers to support the development of scalable, inclusive, and context-sensitive NLEH implementations. Ultimately, the paper contributes to redefining neighborhood-scale energy systems as not only efficient and low-carbon infrastructures, but also as socially equitable, globally scalable, and institutionally adaptive components of future smart cities. Full article