Search Results (58)

Artificial intelligence (AI) agents are increasingly shaping vital sectors of society, including healthcare, education, supply chains, and finance. As their influence grows, AI alignment research plays a pivotal role in ensuring these systems are trustworthy, transparent, and aligned with human values. Leveraging blockchain technology, proven over the past decade in enabling transparent, tamper-resistant distributed systems, offers significant potential to strengthen AI alignment. However, despite its potential, the current AI alignment literature has yet to systematically explore the effectiveness of blockchain in facilitating secure and ethical behavior in AI agents. While existing systematic literature reviews (SLRs) in AI alignment address various aspects of AI safety and AI alignment, this SLR specifically examines the gap at the intersection of AI alignment, blockchain, and ethics. To address this gap, this SLR explores how blockchain technology can overcome the limitations of existing AI alignment approaches. We searched for studies containing keywords from AI, blockchain, and ethics domains in the Scopus database, identifying 7110 initial records on 28 May 2024. We excluded studies which did not answer our research questions and did not discuss the thematic intersection between AI, blockchain, and ethics to a sufficient extent. The quality of the selected studies was assessed on the basis of their methodology, clarity, completeness, and transparency, resulting in a final number of 46 included studies, the majority of which were journal articles. Results were synthesized through quantitative topic analysis and qualitative analysis to identify key themes and patterns. The contributions of this paper include the following: (i) presentation of the results of an SLR conducted to identify, extract, evaluate, and synthesize studies on the symbiosis of AI alignment, blockchain, and ethics; (ii) summary and categorization of the existing benefits and challenges in incorporating blockchain for AI alignment within the context of ethics; (iii) development of a framework that will facilitate new research activities; and (iv) establishment of the state of evidence with in-depth assessment. The proposed blockchain-based AI alignment framework in this study demonstrates that integrating blockchain with AI alignment can substantially enhance robustness, promote public trust, and facilitate ethical compliance in AI systems. Full article

In the last decade, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has rapidly evolved and increasingly makes use of innovative technologies. This paper aims to explore and analyze the research on integrating the Internet of Things (IoT) within STEM education and outline key aspects and emerging trends. A complete picture of the recent ten years is gained by gathering bibliometric data from the Scopus and Web of Science scientific databases. Two search queries combining IoT, STEM education, and security were submitted to extract relevant publications and obtain insight into the explored area. The manual content analysis of the study results and publications outlines several key roles of IoT in implementing STEM educational practices, which are conceptualized to reflect user viewpoints. Widespread IoT applications in STEM at different educational levels are discussed and summarized. The special focus on security aspects showed that they are underrepresented, evidenced by the small number of publications related to IoT in STEM education. The importance of including topics aimed at designing and implementing secure IoT applications in STEM-oriented curricula and courses is also discussed. Full article

Background: Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune condition triggered by gluten ingestion. The only effective treatment is adherence to a gluten-free diet (GFD), which is challenging due to the widespread presence of gluten in foods and the lack of physical and financial access to gluten-free options, among other factors that can lead to food nutrition insecurity (FNI). FNI, defined as the difficulty in accessing adequate food, is a factor that not only affects the need to adhere to a GFD but also compromises adherence itself. Objective: Review the scientific literature on the association between FNI, celiac disease, and adherence to a gluten-free diet. Methodology: This integrative review was conducted systematically using the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, selecting studies that evaluated food security and insecurity among celiac patients. The keywords used with the Boolean operators were “celiac disease” AND/OR “gluten-free diet” AND “food insecurity” AND/OR “food security”. The search did not restrict language or geographic location, and studies were selected independently by two reviewers. Results: Ten publications met the inclusion criteria and were selected for the integrative review. FNI has been studied over the last five years in CD patients, but there is a lack of studies in different regions. FNI negatively affects the quality of life for those with CD and contributes to more severe symptoms and lower adherence to the GFD, especially in children and low-income families. Factors associated with higher risks of FNI in those with celiac disease include income, education, living in rural or non-central areas, and availability. These factors reinforce the negative impact of the association between FNI and adherence to the GFD in CD patients. Conclusions: The study of FNI in celiac individuals is a relatively recent development. The prevalence of FNI in this population is concerning and higher than in the general population, and it is associated with adherence to the GFD. Therefore, this topic demands extensive public policies to improve the health, quality of life, adherence, and treatment of CD patients. Full article

This study examines how Chinese and Western news media covered artificial intelligence (AI) privacy issues in higher education from 2019 to 2024. News articles were retrieved from Nexis Uni. First, non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) was employed to identify core AI privacy topics in university teaching, administration, and research. Next, a time trend analysis investigated how media attention shifted in relation to key events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of generative AI. Finally, a sentiment analysis was conducted to compare the distribution of positive, negative, and neutral reporting. The findings indicate that AI-driven proctoring, student data security, and institutional governance are central concerns in both Chinese and English media. However, the focus and framing differ: some Western outlets highlight individual privacy rights and controversies in remote exam monitoring, while Chinese coverage more frequently addresses AI-driven educational innovation and policy support. The shift to remote education after 2020 and the rise of generative AI from 2023 onward have intensified discussions on AI privacy in higher education. The results offer a cross-cultural perspective for institutions seeking to reconcile the adoption of AI with robust privacy safeguards and provide a foundation for future data governance frameworks under diverse regulatory environments. Full article

Due to the widespread applicability of generative artificial intelligence, we have seen it adopted across many areas of education, providing universities with new opportunities, particularly in cybersecurity education. With the industry facing a skills shortage, this paper explores the use of generative artificial intelligence in higher cybersecurity education as an intelligent tutoring system to enhance factors leading to positive student outcomes. Despite its success in content generation and assessment within cybersecurity, the field’s multidisciplinary nature presents additional challenges to scalability and generalisability. We propose a solution using agents to orchestrate specialised large language models and to demonstrate its applicability in graduate level cybersecurity topics offered at a leading Australian university. We aim to show a generalisable and scalable solution to diversified educational paradigms, highlighting its relevant features, and a method to evaluate the quality of content as well as the general effectiveness of the intelligent tutoring system on subjective factors aligned with positive student outcomes. We further explore areas for future research in model efficiency, privacy, security, and scalability. Full article

This study examines the security implications of generative artificial intelligence (GAI), focusing on models such as ChatGPT. As GAI technologies are increasingly integrated into industries like healthcare, education, and media, concerns are growing regarding security vulnerabilities, ethical challenges, and potential for misuse. This study not only synthesizes existing research but also conducts an original scientometric analysis using text mining techniques. To address these concerns, this research analyzes 1047 peer-reviewed academic articles from the SCOPUS database using scientometric methods, including Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) analysis, keyword centrality analysis, and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling. The results highlight significant contributions from countries such as the United States, China, and India, with leading institutions like the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National University of Singapore driving research on GAI security. In the keyword centrality analysis, “ChatGPT” emerged as a highly central term, reflecting its prominence in the research discourse. However, despite its frequent mention, “ChatGPT” showed lower proximity centrality than terms like “model” and “AI”. This suggests that while ChatGPT is broadly associated with other key themes, it has a less direct connection to specific research subfields. Topic modeling identified six major themes, including AI and security in education, language models, data processing, and risk management. The analysis emphasizes the need for robust security frameworks to address technical vulnerabilities, ensure ethical responsibility, and manage risks in the safe deployment of AI systems. These frameworks must incorporate not only technical solutions but also ethical accountability, regulatory compliance, and continuous risk management. This study underscores the importance of interdisciplinary research that integrates technical, legal, and ethical perspectives to ensure the responsible and secure deployment of GAI technologies. Full article

Agroforestry systems (AFSs) exhibit varied composition and dynamics as intrinsic characteristics of their specificities. In this context, a review of the adoption, composition, and dynamics of AFSs in the Amazon biome was conducted to identify the origin, institutions, and researchers of published studies with results on this scientific topic, focused on trends and characteristics of AFSs diversity in the Amazon. The methodology adopted was a scoping review, based on searches in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, using specific keywords to ensure that the articles addressed topics related to the adoption, composition, and dynamics of AFSs in the Amazon. Following the selection of subtopics, 66 articles were selected and analyzed. The analysis revealed that research on AFSs in the Amazon highlights interactions among traditional knowledge, innovations, and sustainability. The analysis of research published between 1996 and 2023 indicated growth in studies with an interdisciplinary focus, primarily from Brazil. However, internationalization, collaborative networks, and funding factors contribute to the prominence of foreign institutions. Research studies often address topics such as species diversity, agrobiodiversity, and tree growth in agroforestry intercrops. In this context, homegarden agroforestry (HAF) emerges as one of the main subjects of study, encompassing multifunctional environments, richness diversity, and ongoing experimentation with plant species. The choice of species for AFSs is influenced by factors such as labor, personal preferences, and market demands, although loggers and commercial forestry systems tend to have lower diversity, contrasting with HAF. AFSs implementation methods vary according to financing, management, and the farmer’s education and gender. Environmental conservation, food security, ecosystem services, and production flexibility are highlighted as benefits of AFSs, while challenges include technical and economic limitations. This research highlights the strengthening and consolidation of AFSs by addressing scientific gaps and demonstrating the need for studies on the adoption, consolidation, and management of these systems, as well as the relationship between diversity and yield. Future research should be concentrated on deepening studies on the relationship between diversity and yield in AFSs, as well as on management strategies that support the consolidation of these systems in the Amazon biome, integrating innovation, public policy support, and traditional knowledge of farmers. Full article

Several studies find that low food security has negative effects on academic performance in higher education in the U.S., but the samples for these studies often have low percentages of Hispanic students. Consequently, it remains unclear if food security affects academic performance in predominantly Hispanic settings. Our study aims to analyze whether food security affects academic performance at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). Using original survey data collected on 2020 students enrolled at a large research-intensive HSI and cumulative logit models, we assess whether food security influences concentration and graduation delays among students at an HSI in the U.S.–Mexico border region. Our findings strongly suggest that low food security reduces concentration and increases delays for graduation at the HSI. The results have important implications for HSI leaders who want to improve student success, and we offer recommendations for future programs and investments to build student food security at HSIs. Because food security is a strong social determinant of health, the study is closely related to the topic of addressing social determinants of health to improve Hispanic health outcomes. When universities take action to build food security among HSI students, they simultaneously make an investment to improve Hispanic health outcomes. Full article

In recent years, we have witnessed an increase in emergency and catastrophic events. It is now crucial for professionals involved in emergency management to stay updated on issues and statistics related to decision-making in emergency situations. Emergency Decision-Making (EDM) has emerged as a strategic field of study, guiding the training and education of those responsible for managing and responding to emergencies, making it a critical area for national security. This original work advances the study of EDM by offering key insights into research trends over the years, the geographical distribution of scientific output, the methodologies employed, yearly statistics, and the spread of key terms and the most-explored topics. The main findings of this study on EDM literature from 1977 to 2023 highlight the dominant role of China and the USA in scientific productivity in the field. Moreover, a significant absolute increase in scientific productivity has been observed from 2020 to the present. Full article

In today’s competitive higher education sector, institutions increasingly rely on international rankings to secure financial resources, attract top-tier talent, and elevate their global reputation. Simultaneously, these universities have expanded their presence on social media, utilizing sophisticated posting strategies to disseminate information and boost recognition and engagement. This study examines the relationship between higher education institutions’ (HEIs’) rankings and their social media posting strategies. We gathered and analyzed publications from 18 HEIs featured in a consolidated ranking system, examining various features of their social media posts. To better understand these strategies, we categorized the posts into five predefined topics—engagement, research, image, society, and education. This categorization, combined with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and a Random Forest (RF) algorithm, was utilized to predict social media output in the last five days of each month, achieving successful results. This paper further explores how variations in these social media strategies correlate with the rankings of HEIs. Our findings suggest a nuanced interaction between social media engagement and the perceived prestige of HEIs. Full article

This research analyzes to what extent qualified digital audiences perceive, understand, and value the factuality of news published by news media within a communicative ecosystem where unverified information proliferates on social media. Additionally, it examines which factors may influence what highly educated and critically capable information audiences expect to find when consuming journalism. A qualitative, comparative study was conducted from a sample obtained of the ten most relevant statements on socio-political topics with the highest number of interactions published on the Twitter (X) accounts of six European digital and legacy media (Médiapart and Le Monde, France; Tortoise and The Guardian, United Kingdom; El Diario.es and El País, Spain), along with their reflection and development on the respective websites. With an expanded analytical scope to 300 tweet-news items (n = 300), two in-person focus groups were held at the College of Europe in Natolin (Poland) with postgraduate students from nine countries to assess their perception of the degree of truthfulness, bias, quality, and credibility of the displayed information. The results indicate that young, qualified digital audiences feel secure and capable of detecting any disinformation disorder. They value the variety of mentioned and verifiable sources, the presence of expert voices, and data-based claims as key elements in constructing credible media narratives. Full article

In formal education, teachers play a fundamental role in teaching healthy nutritional habits, which are crucial for promoting balanced diets throughout life. This research aims to analyze the nutritional training of teachers by reviewing the presence of nutritional education content in their university education. The methodology employed is a descriptive documentary analysis incorporating both qualitative and quantitative components, utilizing a document analysis of the teaching guides (280 documents) from primary education degrees offered in Spain (67 universities). The results reveal significant deficiencies in the nutritional content of the teaching guides, highlighting gaps in the initial training of teachers. Among the inadequately addressed topics are food sovereignty, food security, diseases related to poor nutrition, guidelines for healthy eating, and types of diets that promote good health and respect the socioeconomic environment. Therefore, to meet some of the challenges proposed by the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, it would be advisable to provide primary education degree students at Spanish universities with greater knowledge of nutrition-related aspects. Full article

Background. Parent vaccine hesitancy is a sensitive topic despite the benefits associated with children’s vaccination. Especially regarding the COVID-19 vaccination, parents displayed concerns about children’s vaccination, questioning their effectiveness and security. Although several studies were conducted on the general population, few studies investigated this relationship on parents’ intentions. Methods. An online survey was advertised from May to December 2022 on social networks, collecting data from 109 participants (90% F; mean age: 41.34 years, SD: ±6.40). The survey assessed sociodemographic characteristics, vaccine hesitancy through the Parents Attitude towards Childhood Vaccine—PAVC, trust in science through the Belief in Science Scale—BISS, and conspiracy beliefs through the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale—GCBS. Results. In our sample, 29 parents (26.6%) scored more than 50 points to PAVC and, for this reason, were considered hesitant. Moreover, more than half of parents (60.6%) declared that they did not intend to vaccinate their children in the future. The path analysis model showed that parents with low education tended to have higher conspiracy beliefs (β = −0.40). Holding conspiracy beliefs (β = 0.28) and having low trust in science (β = −0.23) was associated with higher parent hesitancy and, in turn, no future intention to vaccinate their children for COVID-19 (OR = 0.83, p < 0.001). Conclusion. The results of the current paper suggest that targeted campaigns should be aimed at parents with lower levels of education, mainly on social media, debunking the most common fake news or myths, independently from the type of vaccine, and highlighting the importance of scientific research for improving people’s living conditions. Full article

This study explores the integration of ChatGPT, a generative AI tool, into academic advising systems, aiming to assess its efficacy compared to traditional human-generated advisories. Conducted within the INVEST European University, which emphasizes sustainable and innovative educational practices, this research leverages AI to demonstrate its potential in enhancing sustainability within the context of academic advising. By providing ChatGPT with scenarios from academic advising, we evaluated the AI-generated recommendations against traditional advisories across multiple dimensions, including acceptance, clarity, practicality, impact, and relevance, in real academic settings. Five academic advisors reviewed recommendations across diverse advising scenarios such as pursuing certifications, selecting bachelor dissertation topics, enrolling in micro-credential programs, and securing internships. AI-generated recommendations provided unique insights and were considered highly relevant and understandable, although they received moderate scores in acceptance and practicality. This study demonstrates that while AI does not replace human judgment, it can reduce administrative burdens, significantly enhance the decision-making process in academic advising, and provide a foundation for a new framework that improves the efficacy and sustainability of academic advising practices. Full article

Cybercrime is currently rapidly developing, requiring an increased demand for information security knowledge. Attackers are becoming more sophisticated and complex in their assault tactics. Employees are a focal point since humans remain the ‘weakest link’ and are vital to prevention. This research investigates what cognitive and internal factors influence information security awareness (ISA) among employees, through quantitative empirical research using a survey conducted at a Dutch financial insurance firm. The research question of “How and to what extent do cognitive and internal factors contribute to information security awareness (ISA)?” has been answered, using the theory of situation awareness as the theoretical lens. The constructs of Security Complexity, Information Security Goals (InfoSec Goals), and SETA Programs (security education, training, and awareness) significantly contribute to ISA. The most important research recommendations are to seek novel explaining variables for ISA, further investigate the roots of Security Complexity and what influences InfoSec Goals, and venture into qualitative and experimental research methodologies to seek more depth. The practical recommendations are to minimize the complexity of (1) information security topics (e.g., by contextualizing it more for specific employee groups) and (2) integrate these simplifications in various SETA methods (e.g., gamification and online training). Full article