Search Results (8)

Game meat production represents a unique opportunity to align ecological sustainability with the growing consumer demand for sustainable agri-food products. This study focuses on the perspectives of processors and landowners in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, examining their views on market trends, customer behaviours, barriers, and sustainability challenges. Focusing on these key stakeholders, the study highlights their central role as key drivers in shaping and sustaining the game meat value chain. This research combines secondary data analysis and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders to provide a comprehensive understanding of the game meat sector. Findings highlight that, while game meat is valued for its organic and sustainable qualities, barriers such as limited consumer awareness, high costs, and regulatory constraints hinder its market potential. The study reveals the vital role of consumer education, branding, and the development of value-added products in bridging the gap between ecological management and sustainable market growth. Moreover, the research underscores the need for tailored policies to address structural inefficiencies, promote collaboration across the value chain, and enhance accessibility to sustainable game meat products. By aligning production and marketing strategies with consumer preferences, the sector can contribute significantly to sustainable agri-food systems while supporting rural economies and biodiversity conservation. This study provides actionable recommendations for industry stakeholders and policymakers aiming to foster sustainable practices and consumer engagement in the game meat market. Full article

The frequent turnover of college graduates is a key factor leading to the frictional unemployment and structural unemployment of youth, which are important research fields concerned with pedagogy, sociology, and management; however, there is little research on the prediction of college graduates’ turnover. Therefore, this study investigated the turnover status of 17,268 college graduates from 52 universities in China, constructed and optimized a random forest model for predicting the turnover of college graduates, and analyzed the influencing mechanism of college graduates’ turnover and the importance of influencing factors. The enhanced random forest model could deal with the unbalanced data and has a higher prediction accuracy as well as stronger generalization ability in predicting the turnover of college graduates. Individual background variables, job characteristic variables, and work environment variables are all important factors influencing whether college graduates resign or not. The top five factors that affect the turnover of college graduates by more than 10% are income level, job satisfaction degree, job opportunities, and job matching degree. The conclusion of this study is conducive to improving the accuracy of turnover prediction, systematically exploring the influencing factors of college graduates’ turnover, and effectively guaranteeing the overall stability of youth employment. Full article

Vocal arts medicine provides care and prevention strategies for professional voice disorders in performing artists. The issue of correct “Fach” determination depending on the presence of a lyric or dramatic voice structure is of crucial importance for opera singers, as chronic overuse often leads to vocal fold damage. To avoid phonomicrosurgery or prevent a premature career end, our aim is to offer singers an improved, objective fach counseling using digital sound analyses and machine learning procedures. For this purpose, a large database of 2004 sound samples from professional opera singers was compiled. Building on this dataset, we employed a classic ensemble learning method, namely the Random Forest algorithm, to construct an efficient fach classifier. This model was trained to learn from features embedded within the sound samples, subsequently enabling voice classification as either lyric or dramatic. As a result, the developed system can decide with an accuracy of about 80% in most examined voice types whether a sound sample has a lyric or dramatic character. To advance diagnostic tools and health in vocal arts medicine and singing voice pedagogy, further machine learning methods will be applied to find the best and most efficient classification method based on artificial intelligence approaches. Full article

Several studies have demonstrated the positive impact of wild pedagogies on the well-being and learning of primary learners. However, wild pedagogies in higher education remain relatively obscure. This study assesses whether wild pedagogies affect the wellness of university students and analyzes the outcomes of the natural learning experiences in a higher education setting. As such, we use the roBERTa model to evaluate the sentiment score and thematic content to analyze 167 reflective essays on conducted natural learning experiences by undergraduate engineering students from a large Canadian public university. Our findings indicate that wild pedagogies benefit the wellness of university students and provide positive learning experiences. Moreover, positive natural learning experiences motivate students to develop environmental consciousness and sentimental connections with nature. Full article

While the beneficial effects of forests on health and well-being are broadly investigated, little is known on the restorative effects of forest infrastructure. Thus, this study assessed the perceptions of installing furniture in a recreational forest in forest visitors. We surveyed 220 volunteers attending guided walks before (n = 99) and after (n = 121) furnishing the Hallerwald. The questionnaire assessed restorative qualities of four places in the forest before and after furnishing, and changes in visitors’ self-perceptions pre and post visiting the forest for 2.5 h. Further, visitors evaluated the furniture and the visit. The four sites in the forest under study benefited differently from furnishing. We found mixed outcomes with respect to the restorative qualities of places by furnishing, and a similar improvement of human restoration pre- and post-walk, irrespective of furnishing, but received mainly positive ratings for the installed furniture. The participants expected positive effects of visiting the forest to last one to two days. Our findings suggest that furnishing the forest made this forest a unique place for pedagogy, health interventions, and tourism. We concluded that furnishing, designed to fit the characteristics of a specific place, can support health and well-being in restorative forests and should be recognized by sustainable forest management. Full article

This paper evaluates the impact of the forest environment on aggressive manifestations in adolescents. A remedial educative programme was performed with 68 teenagers from institutions with substitute social care with diagnoses F 30.0 (affective disorders) and F 91.0 (family-related behavioural disorders), aged 12–16 years. Adolescents observed patterns of prosocial behaviour in forest animals (wolves, wild boars, deer, bees, ants, squirrels and birds), based on the fact that processes and interactions in nature are analogous to proceedings and bonds in human society. The methodology is based on qualitative and quantitative research. Projective tests (Rorschach Test, Hand Test, Thematic Apperception Test) were used as a diagnostic tool for aggressive manifestations before and after forest therapies based on Shinrin-yoku, wilderness therapy, observational learning and forest pedagogy. Probands underwent 16 therapies lasting for two hours each. The experimental intervention has a statistically significant effect on the decreased final values relating to psychopathology, irritability, restlessness, emotional instability, egocentrism, relativity, and negativism. Forest animals demonstrated to these adolescents ways of communication, cooperation, adaptability, and care for others, i.e., characteristics without which no community can work. Full article

Arne Næss considered nature the best source of knowledge and regarded the economists as morally responsible for the ecological crisis. Therefore, this research focused on students of economic fields at the university level. The experimental group (n = 236) led by a teacher-as-researcher completed a Business Economic course by forest workshops for one semester because the sustainability principles can be very well explained and observed on examples of forest fauna and flora and then applied in managerial practice. Many similarities were found between forest and business principles (optimal growth rate, teamwork, cooperation models, parasitism). This paper aimed to identify if students’ proficiency in applying sustainable mindset from a forest ecosystem to practice increased. The achievement test compared outcomes of the experimental and control group (n = 190) of students. Based on statistical testing, it can be stated that the experimental intervention led to better results compared to the control group. For issues in which no suitable parallel with the forest ecosystem was found and were therefore explained according to the textbook, group (E) did not perform better than group (C). The methodology is based on qualitative and quantitative research, a mixed-methods approach. Full article

Sensory analysis is unusual in sustainability research, although it can offer a neoteric aspect of nature and wild animals’ perception. The study’s objective was to identify consumers’ attitudes towards plant and animal products from wild and conventional foods and put these findings into a broader social context. A blind sensory evaluation with 80 semi-trained assessors was used, segmented by gender, age, education, income, place of origin, family status, number of children, and willingness to pay. Wild boar (Sus scrofa) was chosen as an example of an overpopulated animal species occurring in the wild, which could be considered a partial substitute for pork. Statistical testing in these blind evaluations proved that wild boar meat is not considered less tasty. Therefore, wild boar meat could represent a partial substitute, complementing pork, on which consumers are willing to spend the same amount of money. Despite the mostly indifferent sensory evaluation, focus group responses showed considerable barriers to wild food. This paper concludes that possible educational and popularizing procedures are presented, including forest pedagogy, eliminating consumers’ prejudices. A mixed-methods approach within quantitative and qualitative methodology was chosen. Full article