Search Results (381)

This article explores the integration of food ethics as a proposed fifth and emerging pillar of food security, complementing the four dimensions established by the FAO 1996 framework (availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability). Using Romania as a case study, the research combines descriptive statistical analysis, legislative review, and conceptual interpretation to examine how moral responsibility, social equity, and food citizenship shape sustainable food systems. Quantitative data from Eurostat (2020–2022) reveal that Romania generates over 3.4 million tons of food waste annually, with households accounting for more than half of the total. This wasted abundance coexists with persistent food insecurity, affecting 14.7% of the population who cannot afford a protein-based meal even once every second day. Given the short time series (n = 3), including the entire data that was reported to date and the exclusive use of secondary data, the statistical results are interpreted descriptively and, where applicable, exploratorily. In this context, the findings demonstrate that food waste is not merely an issue of economic inefficiency, but rather a profound ethical and social imbalance. This research argues for the conceptual recognition of an ethical pillar within the food security framework linking moral awareness, responsible consumption, and equitable access to food. By advancing food ethics as a normative and societal foundation of sustainable food systems, this article offers a framework relevant for policy design, civic engagement, and collective responsibility, reframing food security beyond a purely technical objective. Full article

In this work, we propose a nonlinear fractional partial differential equation model incorporating a Caputo fractional derivative in time, a second-order spatial derivative, and a nonlinear Fredholm integral term. This model accounts for memory effects, anomalous diffusion, and nonlocal interactions, offering a more realistic description of complex transport phenomena compared to classical integer-order models. To solve the model numerically, we develop a fully discrete scheme that combines Lagrange interpolation-based approximation for the Caputo fractional derivative in time with central difference discretization for the spatial derivative. This approach ensures accuracy and flexibility in handling both the fractional derivative and the nonlinear integral term. A comprehensive convergence and stability analysis is conducted, establishing second-order accuracy in space and nearly second-order accuracy in time. Rigorous error estimates confirm the reliability and robustness of the proposed scheme for practical computations. Finally, a numerical example with a known exact solution is solved to validate the method. Errors are computed in both the $L_2$ and maximum norms, and the temporal and spatial convergence orders are verified. The results, summarized in tables, demonstrate the effectiveness of the fully discrete scheme and underscore the practical utility of the proposed fractional model in complex physical and engineering systems. Full article

Promoting pro-environmental behavior is crucial for addressing environmental challenges and achieving sustainable development. Social norms, as a powerful situational force, are considered an effective strategy for encouraging environmental protection actions. However, the mechanisms and boundaries of different types of social norms remain unclear. This study focuses on the pro-environmental donation context, aiming to reveal how social norms influence donation intentions, particularly the mediating role of personal norms and the moderating effect of social distance. Through two online experimental studies, this study manipulates norm types and social distance while measuring participants’ personal norms and donation intentions. The findings suggest that injunctive social norms are more effective than descriptive norms in promoting donation intentions, with personal norms mediating this effect. Social distance moderates the effect of norm type: descriptive norms are more effective in close social distance, while injunctive norms have a stronger impact in distant social distance. This study not only systematically outlines the psychological pathway through which social norms drive pro-environmental behavior but also reveals a “norm type-psychological distance” matching effect, providing a theoretical basis and practical guidance for targeted and context-specific environmental communication and donation interventions. Full article

Agricultural producers experience elevated stress, limited mental health access, and cultural norms that can discourage help-seeking. This study examined farmers’ preferences for receiving mental health information and the barriers that impede care. Data came from a regional needs assessment of 1024 producers across 12 Midwestern states who completed online or paper surveys, including questions on willingness to seek or receive information and the 30-item Barriers to Access to Care Evaluation. Analyses included descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate methods to explore demographic and behavioral predictors. Results indicated that while 74.1% were open to receiving mental health information, notable proportions were unwilling to seek (27.8%) or receive (28.4%) it, and 18.7% were unwilling to do either. Preferred sources were medical providers, mental health professionals, and family members, with agricultural retailers least favored. Women, younger producers, veterans, those with mental health symptoms, and individuals with higher education, anxiety, or depression showed distinct patterns of openness and barrier endorsement. Attitudinal barriers were the most common across groups. Findings highlight the importance of culturally relevant approaches that leverage trusted messengers, reduce stigma, and tailor interventions to specific subgroups to strengthen mental health outreach in agricultural communities. Full article

Background: Botulinum toxin injection is one of the most common esthetic procedures, yet complications may occur due to anatomical variability or suboptimal injection technique. This study aimed to evaluate the upper facial muscles using ultrasound, focusing on inter- and intraindividual variability. Methods: The study involved volunteers aged 21–40 years, excluding those with prior facial treatments, trauma, or muscle disorders. The muscles examined included the occipitofrontalis (frontal belly), procerus, corrugator supercilii, and orbicularis oculi. Muscle thickness and distance from the epidermis were measured using high-frequency ultrasound. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, correlation with age and BMI, sex comparisons, and symmetry assessment. Results: A total of 127 participants (103 women and 24 men) were enrolled, with a mean age of 28.8 ± 4.4 years. Age showed no significant correlation with muscle thickness or depth, supporting the internal consistency of the studied age group. BMI showed moderate correlations with the depth of the selected forehead muscles. Males showed greater thickness in the frontal and procerus muscles. Relative side-to-side asymmetry coefficients reached 40% for both thickness and depth, indicating notable individual laterality. Conclusions: The study provides normative ultrasound parameters for the upper facial muscle in healthy adults. The results demonstrate significant anatomical variability depending on sex, BMI, and facial laterality, supporting individualized ultrasound-guided approaches for botulinum toxin injection. Full article

Improved maternal experiences and outcomes have been widely linked to the presence of birth companions. However, cultural norms, institutional constraints, and privacy concerns frequently restrict women’s choice of birth companions in many Middle Eastern countries, including Jordan. This study investigated Jordanian women’s beliefs and barriers about the presence of companions in the labour room. A qualitative descriptive study design was conducted using Braun and Clarke’s framework for thematic analysis. Thirteen women (ages 21 to 38 years) with prior pregnancy and childbirth experience were chosen from a free health awareness event in Irbid, Northern Jordan in July 2025, to participate in semi-structured interviews. The responses were recorded on audio tapes and subsequently stored in their original format. Data were coded, transcribed, and then thematically analyzed to identify beliefs and perceived barriers. The most significant beliefs were: (i) emotional and psychological support, wherein companionship was thought to alleviate fear and provide reassurance; (ii) strengthening family ties, as women saw shared childbirth experiences as improving family bonds; and (iii) cultural and religious interpretations, wherein female relatives were frequently seen as more acceptable than husbands. Women reported two barriers to allowing companions in the labour room: (i) privacy and modesty issues, where they feared embarrassment, exposure, and judgment, and (ii) institutional and policy restrictions, such as restrictive hospital regulations. Although Jordanian women recognized the emotional and interpersonal benefits of having company during childbirth, they encountered numerous substantial institutional, cultural, and privacy-related barriers. Improving women’s birth experiences and promoting respectful maternity care may be achieved by addressing these issues through culturally sensitive education, privacy-enhancing infrastructure, and regulatory reform. Full article

Background/Objectives: School violence represents a significant concern for educational communities worldwide, affecting student well-being and academic development. While prior research has documented prevalence rates and risk factors, limited studies have examined social–cognitive factors associated with antisocial behavior specifically within vocational education contexts using integrated analytical approaches. This exploratory cross-sectional study examined social–cognitive factors—specifically self-reported attitudes about aggression norms, prosocial attitudes, and school climate perceptions—associated with violence-supportive attitudes among Greek vocational students. Methods: A cross-sectional design employed validated self-report instruments and traditional statistical methods. The sample comprised 76 vocational high school students (38.2% male; ages 14–18; response rate 75.2%) from one school in Patras, Greece. Validated instruments assessed attitudes toward interpersonal peer violence (α = 0.87), peer aggression norms across four subscales (α = 0.83–0.90), and school climate dimensions (α = 0.70–0.75). Analyses included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations with bootstrapped confidence intervals, MANOVA for multivariate group comparisons, independent samples t-tests, propensity score matching for urban–rural comparisons, polynomial regression for developmental patterns, and path analysis for theoretical model testing. Results: Strong associations emerged between perceived school-level and individual-level aggression norms (r = 0.80, p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.71, 0.87]), representing one of the strongest relationships documented in school violence research. Violence-supportive attitudes demonstrated inverse associations with prosocial alternative norms (r = −0.37, p < 0.001, 95% CI [−0.55, −0.16]). Significant gender differences emerged for teacher–student relationships (d = −0.78, p = 0.002), with females reporting substantially more positive perceptions. Propensity-matched urban students demonstrated higher aggression norm endorsement compared to rural students across multiple indicators (d = 0.61–0.78, all p < 0.020). Polynomial regression revealed curvilinear developmental patterns with optimal teacher relationship quality during mid-adolescence (ages 15–16). Path analysis supported a sequential association model wherein school-level norms related to individual attitudes through prosocial alternative beliefs (indirect effect β = −0.22, p = 0.002, 95% CI [−0.34, −0.11]). Conclusions: This preliminary investigation identified social–cognitive factors—particularly normative beliefs about aggression at both individual and environmental levels—as strongly associated with violence-supportive attitudes in Greek vocational education. The exceptionally strong alignment between school-level and individual-level aggression norms (r = 0.80) suggests that environmental normative contexts may play a more substantial role in attitude formation than previously recognized in this educational setting. Gender and urban–rural differences indicate meaningful heterogeneity requiring differentiated approaches. Future research should employ longitudinal designs with multi-informant assessment and larger multi-site samples to establish temporal precedence, reduce method variance, and test causal hypotheses regarding relationships between normative beliefs and behavioral outcomes. Full article

Many insist that only religious inclusivists can meaningfully espouse religious liberty as a universal public policy, because exclusivist perspectives inherently undermine the notion of religious freedom through their particularist truth claims. This study, however, challenges this assumption. Religious exclusivists can simultaneously, consistently, and robustly endorse a public policy of religious liberty for all, without resorting to normative pluralism or religious inclusivism. To make this argument, the article will first examine the support of a universal and global ethic in Hans Küng (an influential, religious inclusivist) and then the description of a universal and global ethic in Martha Nussbaum (whose approach may be interfaced with religious particularism and exclusivism). While the former appealed to a commonality of shared content (a common core of ethical and related beliefs), a shared telos (a similar moral transformation of adherents), and a shared destiny (effectively leading to the same Ultimate Reality), the latter primarily contended for a commonality of shared capacity (the human conscience) rooted in basic human dignity. Nussbaum’s model, reflecting themes found in the seventeenth-century work of Roger Williams, can be consistently interfaced with a Christian particularism, in which Jesus Christ alone (not any political authority) is the rightful Lord of the conscience. Full article

This systematic review examines how translanguaging has been integrated into educational assessment, a domain historically dominated by monolingual norms. Drawing on 33 empirical studies published between 2012 and 2023, we employed an inductive–deductive coding approach to analyze how translanguaging is enacted across assessment types and its implications for teaching, learning, and equity. The literature was concentrated in North America. Findings reveal affordances of translanguaging assessments including more authentic demonstrations of knowledge, deepen content learning, affirm multilingual identities, and reduce linguistic anxiety and challenges including perceptions of illegitimacy, systemic policy constraints, and resource inequities. We argue that translanguaging provides a transformative framework for reimagining assessment as a socially just practice that validates multilingual repertoires. To capture the varied engagements with equity, we conceptualize translanguaging assessment as an epistemological and political stance along a spectrum of justice. The spectrum ranges from access and inclusion to structural transformation to highlight how scholars frame translanguaging within assessment as descriptive practice, pedagogical equity, political resistance, and systemic reimagining. We call for more geographically diverse and methodologically varied research to sustain translanguaging’s impact and inform systemic change. Full article

This study tests a theoretical model explaining reactions to animal abuse in terms of attitudes, norms, and moral obligation, based on research concerning pro-environmental and anti-ecological behavior, as offenses against animals have been considered environmental crimes in legal terms. The sample consisted of 624 people from the general population, aged 18 to 93 (64.1% female), randomly assigned one of three versions of the same scenario of abuse, differing in the category of animal (protected/pet/farm). Participants were requested to complete a questionnaire that included items about the observed variables (descriptive social norm) and latent variables (injunctive social norm, personal norm, moral obligation, attitude toward animals, speciesism, and reaction to animal abuse). The resulting model obtained appropriate fit indices (RMSEA = 0.054; CFI = 0.917) and a high percentage of explained variance of reaction (77%) and confirmed the expectation that moral obligation is the strongest predictor of reactions to animal abuse and activates the personal norm. Personal norm is predicted by attitudes toward animals and the injunctive social norm, which depends on the descriptive social norm. Speciesism was excluded from the model due to its negative covariance with attitudes toward animals and to provide a better-fitting model. The results are discussed in terms of how the human–animal relationship is mediated by the role played in animal categorization, not only by their characteristics, but also by the instrumentality attributed to them socially and culturally. Full article

Most U.S. residents are concerned about and support action on climate change. They also overwhelmingly underestimate the extent to which others are likewise concerned, a phenomenon known as pluralistic ignorance. This is a problem because when individuals perceive that others don’t care, they are less likely to take action themselves. We assessed whether brief exposure to positive thoughts and actions of others might make climate action more normative and increase support for climate policy. Specifically, we exposed people to “Community Voices” (CV), a form of social media designed to promote pro-environmental and pro-social norms. We hypothesized that exposure to CV content (related and unrelated to climate change) would enhance positive climate-related norms and increase climate policy support. We further hypothesized that this shift would be stronger when the content was directly related to climate change and when the content came from participants’ geographic region. Online recruits (N = 969) from national and regional (Northeast Ohio) samples were exposed to either no CV content (control), pro-social CV content (unrelated to climate) or CV content depicting climate action in NE Ohio. Brief exposure to both pro-social and climate action-focused CV content increased both descriptive and prescriptive climate action norms and significantly decreased participants’ psychological distance from climate change. As expected, exposure to climate-focused content increased descriptive norms more than exposure to pro-social content. Pro-social CV content increased policy support. That increase was explained by increased norms and decreased psychological distance. Pro-social CV content significantly increased positive emotions, while climate-focused CV content did not. NE Ohio participants who viewed regional climate-focused content exhibited lower positive emotions and had more difficulty imagining a positive future than those in the national sample. Results suggest that exposure to positive thoughts and actions of others can achieve the critical goals of elevating descriptive norms (thereby reducing pluralistic ignorance) and elevating support for climate policy. However, the psychological impact of exposing people to positive climate-action content is nuanced and complex. Full article

Background/objectives: Speech sound disorder (SSD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) are common childhood disorders of communication that can also co-occur. This study investigated the reported content, format and delivery of UK speech and language therapists’ (SaLTs) practice when delivering intervention for pre-school children with co-occurring SSD/DLD features when expressive vocabulary and speech comprehensibility are prioritised areas. The findings can be used to inform the development of future interventions and enable reflection on current practice. Methods: A quantitative online survey via Qualtrics enabled the statistical analysis of intervention components from SaLTs from across the UK. The survey questions were based on prior research and the input of an expert steering group. The data were analysed through descriptive statistics. Results: There were 108 full responses from across the UK. For both target areas, the responses highlighted a preference for functional intervention targets, holistic delivery of intervention techniques in different environments, and incorporation of techniques into a variety of activities. Most respondents (97.5%) reported that they would also target phonological awareness (PA), with syllable segmentation being the most commonly reported PA target area for inclusion. Overall, 82.4% of respondents said they would consider dosage when providing their intervention. Conclusions: The findings highlight similarities in UK SaLT practice when targeting aspects of both speech (comprehensibility) and language (expressive vocabulary) concurrently, and an emphasis on functional communication, in addition to being guided by developmental norms. The implications for clinical practice and the development of future interventions are discussed. Full article

The persistent gap between consumers’ pro-environmental attitudes and their sustainable behavior continues to challenge both scholars and practitioners. While social norms are often viewed as a lever for encouraging sustainable behavior, empirical results remain inconsistent. This paper develops a conceptual model of sustainable behavior that integrates insights from prior research on social norms, culture, and self-construal. Specifically, the paper links social norms, self-construal, macro-culture, and environmental awareness to explain their combined influence on sustainable behavior. Drawing from social norms theory, self-construal theory, cross-cultural psychology, and environmental psychology, the model proposes that appeals combining specific types of norms (injunctive vs. descriptive) with targeted self-construal activation (independent vs. interdependent) can strengthen purchase intentions, moderated by cultural context and environmental awareness. Eight testable propositions that distinguish established effects from novel extensions are advanced, thereby clarifying boundary conditions and guiding future empirical testing. By synthesizing insights from fragmented literature, the framework positions social norms as the central explanatory construct and provides practical guidance for designing culturally attuned, norm-based sustainability communications. Full article

Inspired by the bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the U.S., this article considers how DEI influences individualism. This study uses literature on Black racial identity development and the conceptual lens of individualism to examine how Black women define themselves. The data used for this study came from 22 college-educated Black women who discussed their paths towards wearing their natural hair, which included personalized descriptions of the ways that race, gender, White beauty norms, workplace expectations, and the perspectives of others influenced this process. The narratives provided by these Black women reveal that DEI helps to promote their individual identity development by helping them to sort through the various messages and opinions to arrive at both a hairstyle and an identity that corresponds to their character. Full article

Due to the highly individualised presentation of sport-related concussion (SRC), multi-domain assessments examining cognitive, migraine, vestibular, ocular, mood, sleep, and neck-related function have been suggested to assist clinicians with diagnosis, management, and rehabilitation. Normative data on such assessments for female, community players from countries outside the U.S. are needed. This study aimed to (i) describe normative data from community-level Ladies Gaelic Football players using a multi-domain assessment, and (ii) compare findings between adolescent and adult players. A total of 138 LGF players without SRC (101 adults, 37 adolescents) completed a multi-domain SRC assessment including Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 5th Edition, Concussion Clinical Profiles Screening, Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screening (VOMS), Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT^®), Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Migraine Disability Assessment, and Neck Bournemouth Questionnaire, and neck dynamometry. Normative data were summarised using descriptive statistics, while differences in test scores between adolescents and adults were examined using parametric or non-parametric tests. While adolescents and adults scored similarly on most measures, adolescents scored worse on ImPACT^® visual–motor speed (d = 0.09) and reaction time (r = 0.52), SCAT5 concentration (V = 0.38), total modified Balance Error Scoring System (r = 0.42), and CP Screen vestibular profile (r = 0.38) (p < 0.05). This is the first study to describe and compare normative data for multidomain SRC assessments in adolescent and adult female, community athletes. Differences in some tests between adolescents and adults highlight the need for demographic-specific normative data when interpreting post-SRC assessment results. Full article