Search Results (147)

This qualitative study investigates how graduate students engage with academic conferences as sites for professional development and identity construction. Grounded in academic socialization theory and employing an interpretive phenomenological approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 graduate students across diverse disciplinary fields in China. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed four distinct participation orientations: knowledge-seeking, competence-building, network-oriented, and identity-exploratory. Our findings illuminate how contemporary academic environments characterized by heightened competition, publish-or-perish pressures, and quantified evaluation systems create conditions of academic alienation, manifesting as disconnection from scholarly work, superficial collegial interactions, and weakened community belonging. Significantly, we identified conference participation as a transformative mechanism through which students counteract alienation by reclaiming meaning in scholarly labor, cultivating authentic academic dialogue, and reconstructing professional community ties. We propose an integrative conceptual framework illustrating the dynamic relationships among alienation, participation orientations, and transformative outcomes. These findings advance the theoretical understanding of academic socialization as an agentic, iterative process and offer practical implications for institutions, faculty advisors, and students seeking to support graduate student development in increasingly pressurized academic climates. Full article

Real-time telecom scam detection is difficult without cloud AI, particularly for privacy-sensitive, low-resource environments. We developed a lightweight, offline voice scam detector using on-device audio segmentation, automatic speech recognition (ASR), and semantic similarity. Four detection strategies were implemented. We used Whisper ASR and DeepSeek to process 5 s speech chunks. An analysis of 120 synthetic and paraphrased Mandarin phone call dialogues reveals the A4 voting strategy’s superior performance in optimizing early detection and minimizing false positives, achieving an F1 score of 0.90, a 2.5% false positive rate, and a mean response time of under 4 s. The system is deployable on ESP32 for offline mobile inference. The proposed architecture provides a robust and scalable defense against threats targeting vulnerable user groups, such as older adults. It introduces a new method for real-time voice threat mitigation on devices through interpretable segment-level semantic analysis. Full article

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into organizational processes to enhance efficiency, decision-making, and innovation, aligning AI systems with human teams remains a major challenge to realizing their full potential. Although academic interest is growing, the conceptual landscape of human–AI relationships remains fragmented. This study employs a bibliometric co-word analysis of 4093 peer-reviewed documents indexed in Scopus to map the intellectual structure of the field. Using a strategic diagram, we assess the relevance and maturity of five major thematic clusters identified in the field. Results highlight the structural dominance of Human–AI Interactions (Centrality: 1595), Human–AI Collaboration (1150), and Teaming and Augmentation (1131) as foundational themes, while Conversational AI (655), and Ethics and Responsibility (431) emerge as specialized domains. Based on the analysis, we propose a conceptual framework that classifies human–AI relationships into four categories—symbiotic, augmented, assisted, and substituted intelligence—according to the level of AI autonomy and human involvement. Rather than providing prescriptive guidance for practitioners, this framework is intended primarily as a scholarly contribution that clarifies the conceptual landscape and supports future theoretical and empirical work. While potential implications for organizational contexts can be inferred, these are secondary to the study’s main goal of offering a research-based synthesis of the field. Ultimately, our work contributes to academic consolidation by offering conceptual clarity and highlighting opportunities for future research, while underscoring the critical need for ethical alignment and interdisciplinary dialogue to guide future AI adoption. Full article

The environmental and social crises affecting global agri-food systems highlight the need for a profound transformation of production models and their territorial relations. In this context, agroecology, understood as science, practice, and movement, has emerged as a paradigm capable of integrating ecological sustainability, social equity, and community participation. Within this framework, the work carried out by CREA in the AgrEcoMed project (new agroecological approach for soil fertility and biodiversity restoration to improve economic and social resilience of Mediterranean farming systems), funded by the PRIMA programme, investigates agroecology as a social and political process of territorial regeneration. This process is grounded in co-design with local stakeholders, collective learning, and the construction of multi-actor networks for agroecology in the Mediterranean. The Manifesto functions as a tool for participatory governance and value convergence, aiming to consolidate a shared vision for the Mediterranean agroecological transition. The article examines, through an analysis of the existing literature, the role of agroecological networks and empirically examines the function of the collective co-creation of the Manifesto as a tool for social innovation. The methodology is based on a participatory action-research approach that used local focus groups, World Café, and thematic analysis to identify the needs of the companies involved. The results highlight the formation of a multi-actor network currently comprising around 90 members and confirm the effectiveness of the Manifesto as a boundary object for horizontal governance. This demonstrates how sustainability can emerge from dialogue, cooperation, and the co-production of knowledge among local actors. Full article

The rapid proliferation of misinformation on social media underscores the urgent need for scalable digital-literacy instruction. This study presents the design and evaluation of a Generative AI-enhanced serious game system that integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) to drive adaptive non-player characters (NPCs). Unlike traditional scripted interactions, the system employs role-based prompt engineering to align real-time AI dialogue with the Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose (CRAAP) framework, enabling dynamic scaffolding and authentic misinformation scenarios. A mixed-method experiment with 60 undergraduate students compared this AI-driven approach to traditional instruction using a 40-item digital-literacy pre/post test, the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI), and open-ended reflections. Results indicated that while both groups improved significantly, the game-based group achieved larger gains in credibility-evaluation performance and reported higher perceived competence, interest, and effort. Qualitative analysis highlighted the HCI trade-off between the high pedagogical value of adaptive AI guidance and technical constraints such as system latency. The findings demonstrate that Generative AI can be effectively operationalized as a dynamic interface layer in serious games to strengthen critical reasoning. This study provides practical guidelines for architecting AI-NPC interactions and advances the theoretical understanding of AI-supported educational informatics. Full article

From an interbehavioral and contingential perspective, family dialogues about sexuality are understood as patterns of verbal interaction regulated by social, gender, and caregiving contingencies rather than as individual attitudes or intentions. Background: This study analyzes the functional conditions under which family dialogues about sexuality occur between mothers and their adolescent sons and daughters, considering caregiving roles and gender norms that regulate these interactions. The research aimed to identify the functional relations between communicative practices and the social contingencies that maintain or inhibit them. Methods: A qualitative approach grounded in interbehavioral psychology was employed, using semistructured interviews with 40 mothers of students from a public middle school in Puebla, Mexico. Data were analyzed through contingency analysis, distinguishing micro- and macrocontingential systems related to family sexual education. Results: Results show that, although patterns of avoidance and discourse displacement toward schools or peers persist, families exhibit increasing openness toward comprehensive sexuality education and recognize its preventive value against violence, adolescent pregnancy, and misinformation. Functional delegation and adolescent mediation of dialogue were identified, along with emerging inclusive macrocontingencies linked to the acceptance of diverse families and LGBTIQ+ themes. Conclusions: It is concluded that households function as self-regulated interbehavioral systems in which historical and gender contingencies restrict sexual dialogue, yet gradual functional changes toward respect, inclusion, and shared educational responsibility are observed. Full article

Teachers’ and leaders’ gendered beliefs and practices shape students’ learning experiences, yet Estonian schools lack systematic approaches to address these dynamics. This study explored teachers’ and school leadership team members’ gender beliefs and gender-related practices. The framework was developed based on gender belief system theory, which was adapted to suit the educational context and specific aims of this research. Focus group interviews with four teachers and four leadership team members from one school were conducted using a qualitative abductive research strategy and thematic analysis. The findings revealed themes on gender stereotypes, roles, transgender and gender-diverse students, sexual orientation, students’ interests, and gender-related practices in schools. Teachers and leaders held varying and sometimes contradictory gender beliefs, exhibiting both stereotypical views and awareness of biases. Moreover, they were open to dialogue, with some willing to adjust their views. While perceiving their schools as gender-supportive, they acknowledged broader gender inequality issues and practices. Full article

Growing interest in food sustainability education aims to increase awareness of food distribution systems, environmental degradation, and the connectivity of sustainable and ethical food practices. However, recent scholarship has questioned whether such pedagogical efforts are meaningfully internalized by students or lead to sustained behavioral change. Prior studies document persistent gaps in students’ understanding of sustainability impacts and the limited effectiveness of existing instructional approaches in promoting transformative engagement. To address these concerns, the Food Ethics, Sustainability and Alternatives (FESA) course was implemented with 21 undergraduate and graduate students at Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ, USA). Course outcomes were evaluated using a mixed-methods design integrating qualitative analysis with quantitative measures informed by the Theory of Planned Behavior, to identify influences on students’ attitudes, and a Transtheoretical Model (TTM) panel survey to address progression from awareness to action, administered pre- and post-semester. Qualitative findings revealed five central themes: increased self-awareness of food system contexts, heightened attention to animal ethics, the importance of structured classroom dialogue, greater recognition of food waste, and increased openness to alternative food sources. TTM results indicated significant reductions in contemplation and preparation stages, suggesting greater readiness for change, though no significant gains were observed in action or maintenance scores. Overall, the findings suggest that while food sustainability education can positively shape student attitudes, the conversion of attitudinal shifts into sustained behavioral change remains limited by external constraints, including time pressures, economic factors, culturally embedded dietary practices, structural tensions within contemporary food systems, and perceptions of limited individual efficacy. Full article

This essay theorizes the body-land, a living site where colonial violence, displacement, and resurgence converge through a hemispheric dialogue between Indigenous and decolonial feminisms from Abya Yala and Turtle Island. Drawing on Lorena Cabnal’s concept of the body-land as the primary terrain of colonial invasion and regeneration, María Lugones’s analysis of the coloniality of gender as a system that fractures body, land, and relations, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s theory of embodied relational resurgence, and Diana Taylor’s notion of the repertoire as embodied memory beyond the archive, the essay argues that silence, gesture, and affect function as insurgent practices of knowledge transmission that contest colonial modes of erasure. Through an autoethnographic narrative spanning displacement from Villarrica, Tolima, and re-rooting on the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations, the analysis traces how colonial grammars of race, gender, and territory are inscribed in the body. Yet these embodied inscriptions also generate practices of resurgence. By bringing Cabnal, Lugones, Simpson, and Taylor into direct conversation, the essay demonstrates that resurgence must be understood as an embodied, relational, and hemispheric process, one in which the body becomes a generative territory for reimagining belonging and repairing the fractures of colonial modernity. Full article

Background: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into mobile health (mHealth) applications has been accelerated by the widespread adoption of smartphones and recent technological advances, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This experience has expanded the role of AI-powered apps in real-time health monitoring, early detection, and personalized treatment pathways. Aim: This review aims to summarize recent evidence on the use of AI in healthcare-related mobile applications, with a focus on clinical trends, practical implications, and future directions. Methods: Studies were prioritized based on methodological rigor, with systematic reviews forming the core of the analysis. Additional literature was considered to capture emerging trends and applications where a relevant rigorous screening and scoring procedure was applied to ensure methodological quality and relevance. Only studies addressing healthcare applications, rather than computational or computer science frameworks, were included to reflect the journal’s clinical scope. Results and Discussion: Fifty-six secondary studies were analyzed in detail. Thematic synthesis revealed a post-pandemic shift toward applications targeting mental health, chronic care management, and preventive services. Additional screening showed that, despite their increasing use in clinical contexts, few AI-based apps were formally classified as medical devices. This highlights a gap between technological innovation and regulatory oversight. Ethical concerns—including algorithm transparency, clinical responsibility, and data protection—were frequently reported across studies. Conclusions: This review underscores the growing impact of AI in mobile health, while drawing attention to unresolved challenges related to regulation, safety, and clinical accountability. A more robust integration into health systems will require clearer governance frameworks, validation standards, and interdisciplinary dialogue between developers, clinicians, and regulators. Full article

This article examines the maternal healthcare experiences of ten Brazilian women during Portugal’s obstetric crisis, focusing on access, use, and quality of care throughout the perinatal and childbirth periods. Using a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews, this study explores women’s perceptions of the adequacy and quality of maternal healthcare, contributing to a deeper understanding of their experiences within the Portuguese health system. Thematic analysis revealed persistent barriers to accessing services, linked to limited knowledge of the healthcare system, lack of awareness of legal rights, discrimination, and other structural obstacles. Participants expressed dissatisfaction with the clarity and quality of information provided by healthcare professionals, their communication skills, and the limited access to specialized care. They also described feeling undervalued by healthcare providers and reported an absence of emotional and psychosocial support during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. Accounts of disrespectful and abusive practices highlight the vulnerability of migrant women. This study underscores the urgent need to recognize and address migrant women’s needs. Beyond access, policies should promote equity, cultural responsiveness, and intercultural dialogue to ensure respectful, person-centered maternal care. Full article

Envisaging future metro operations requires a collective and collaborative approach to understand an operator’s requirements. This study aims to gain an understanding of the current status of metro operators, as well as to identify areas of future innovation and further development. A special emphasis was given to the organisational settings—an underexplored aspect of metro operators in existing research—in addressing the following three designated areas of interest: predictive maintenance, cyber-security, and energy consumption. Therefore, to achieve an insight into metro operator’s internal operations, the study sought to engage in dialogue with operators. A literature review was first conducted to provide a foundation for analysis, and based on it, an online self-completed questionnaire survey was designed and administered to gain responses and insights from an extensive range of real-world metro operators. Follow-up face-to-face and group-wide discussions were also undertaken to obtain further detail and more specific information relating to metro operations. Through a three-dimension analysis framework, current practices, areas of consensus, and future innovative strategies of metro operators’ internal operations and organisational settings are highlighted. These insights collectively underscore the importance of adaptable strategies and cross-sector collaboration for advancing resilient, efficient, and secure metro systems. The outcome of the paper aspires to provide a strong foundation for future research as well as for future metro projects, providing an overview of the existing status of metro operators across the world. Full article

Spanish educational legislation on cultural diversity has shifted in five decades from homogenizing frameworks to an explicit commitment to inclusion and interculturality. This article reports a qualitative documentary analysis of state laws and Royal Decrees from the Ley 14/1970 General de Educación to the Ley Orgánica 3/2020, de 29 de diciembre, por la que se modifica la Ley Orgánica 2/2006, de Educación to examine how cultural and linguistic diversity is conceptualized, how it is embedded in a competence-based curriculum, and which tools are provided for its implementation. The analysis addresses three dimensions: (a) policy conceptions of diversity, (b) curricular instruments (competences, learning situations, assessment), and (c) implementation mechanisms (resources, teacher development, equity monitoring). Results indicate a move from compensatory and assimilationist logics to rights-based, competence-based formulations, with clearer references to dialogue, mediation, and non-discrimination, but also a persistent gap between legal texts and school realities. The study concludes that the current framework enables more observable and assessable intercultural aims, while its impact depends on concrete support for school and teachers. This diachronic perspective on a medium-sized European system offers transferable insights for other countries seeking to embed intercultural competences and equity in curriculum assessment and teacher development. Full article

Temporary agency work (TAW) has expanded globally as organizations seek flexibility amid skill shortages and demand volatility. In 2015 the United Nations recognized ‘decent work’ as Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 8), emphasizing sustainable economic growth, fair employment opportunities accessible to all without discrimination, environmental responsibility, and social inclusiveness. This study examines why user organizations (clients) adopt TAW and how these drivers materialize in stakeholder practices that align—or fail to align—with SDG-8 dimensions of decent work. Within a qualitative-dominant, explanatory sequential mixed-methods case study, documentary and statistical analyses were combined with 19 semi-structured interviews across agencies, clients, agency workers, trade unions, and relevant authorities. Inductive thematic analysis identified seven demand-side driver categories and assessed their effects using the SDG-8 pillars as an analytical lens (employment creation, rights at work, social protection, social dialogue). Findings indicate that TAW is primarily deployed to buffer volatility and labour shortages, accelerate hiring, and shift HR administration and parts of risk to agencies, with limited integration of SDG-8–consistent practices. Three cross-cutting gaps emerged: (i) social dialogue is narrow and compliance-oriented, with little strategic focus on decent-work outcomes; (ii) agency-worker voice and representation are weak, and agencies are not consistently recognised as social partners; and (iii) social-sustainability efforts are sparse and ad hoc, with few structured measures for skill development, equal treatment, or clear conversion pathways, while environmentally friendly initiatives are almost completely absent. In Slovenia, TAW fills systemic labour gaps but remains weakly integrated with SDG-8 practices. The study links demand-side drivers to specific decent-work shortfalls and proposes a multi-level policy roadmap—regulatory, industry, TAW agency, and social-dialogue platforms—to advance progress toward social sustainability and environmental responsibility. Full article

Speaker diarization is a key component of automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems, particularly in interview scenarios where speech segments must be assigned to individual speakers. This study presents a diarization algorithm based on sound intensity analysis using an Acoustic Vector Sensor (AVS). The algorithm determines the azimuth of each speaker, defines directional beams, and detects speaker activity by analyzing intensity distributions within each beam, enabling identification of both single and overlapping speech segments. A dedicated dataset of interview recordings involving five speakers was created for evaluation. Performance was assessed using the Diarization Error Rate (DER) metric and compared with the State-of-the-Art Pyannote.audio system. The proposed AVS-based method achieved a lower DER value (0.112) than Pyannote (0.213) without overlapping speech, and a DER equal to 0.187 with overlapping speech included, demonstrating improved diarization accuracy and better handling of overlapping speech. The algorithm does not require training, operates independently of speaker-specific features, and can be adapted to various acoustic conditions. The results confirm that AVS-based diarization provides a robust and interpretable alternative to neural approaches, particularly suitable for structured two-speaker dialogues such as physician–patient or interviewer–interviewee scenarios. Full article