Search Results (259)

The Red River Jig is a traditional Métis dance practiced among Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples. While exercise improves physical health and fitness, the impacts of cultural dances on wholistic health are less clear. This study aimed to investigate the psychosocial (cultural and mental), social, physical function, and physical fitness benefits of a Red River Jig intervention. In partnership with Li Toneur Nimiyitoohk Métis Dance Group, Indigenous and non-Indigenous adults (N = 40, 39 ± 15 years, 32 females) completed an 8-week Red River Jig intervention. Social support, cultural identity, memory, and mental wellbeing questionnaires, seated blood pressure and heart rate, weight, pulse-wave velocity, heart rate variability, baroreceptor sensitivity, jump height, sit-and-reach flexibility, one-leg and tandem balance, and six-minute walk test were assessed pre- and post-intervention. Community, family, and friend support scores, six-minute walk distance (553.0 ± 88.7 m vs. 602.2 ± 138.6 m, p = 0.002), jump, leg power, and systolic blood pressure low-to-high-frequency ratio increased after the intervention. Ethnic identity remained the same while affirmation and belonging declined, leading to declines in overall cultural identity, as learning about Métis culture through the Red River Jig may highlight gaps in cultural knowledge. Seated systolic blood pressure (116.5 ± 7.3 mmHg vs. 112.5 ± 10.7 mmHg, p = 0.01) and lower peripheral pulse-wave velocity (10.0 ± 2.0 m·s⁻¹ vs. 9.4 ± 1.9 m·s⁻¹, p = 0.04) decreased after the intervention. Red River Jig dance training can improve social support, physical function, and physical fitness for Indigenous and non-Indigenous adults. Full article

This paper introduces a theoretical large-scale radio channel model for the downlink in cellular systems, aimed at estimating variations in received signal power at the user terminal as a function of device mobility. This enables applications such as direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation, estimating power at subsequent points based on received power, and detection of coverage anomalies. The model is validated using real-world measurements from urban and suburban environments, achieving a maximum estimation error of 7.6%. In contrast to conventional models like Okumura–Hata, COST-231, Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) stochastic models, or ray-tracing techniques, which estimate average power under static conditions, the proposed model captures power fluctuations induced by terminal movement, a factor often neglected. Although advanced techniques such as wave-domain processing with intelligent metasurfaces can also estimate DoA, this model provides a simpler, geometry-driven approach based on empirical traces. While it does not incorporate infrastructure-specific characteristics or inter-cell interference, it remains a practical solution for scenarios with limited information or computational resources. Full article

Throughout the generations, traditional academic writing skills development has taught students in socio-human programs to express their knowledge and thoughts with an evidence-based foundation, helping them make a special connection with their professional fields. However, a lack of digital learning and writing resources in this process has been identified. This study of the social work field connects digital academic writing, social protection functionality, and research innovations, identifying and exploring open-access (OA) educational and social resources for social work higher education (SWHE). Applying content analyses to online documents and websites, we identified key terms characteristic of social work, following a standard approach on formulating research questions, identifying categories, creating a code book, sampling, and measuring information. The research questions were as follows: How is digital academic writing being developed in social work education programs in Romanian universities? Where do researchers, students, teachers, and professionals gather OA digital information and data for academic innovation? What kind of OA information and data are contained in websites for academic writing? We also used OA socio-educational resource analysis to derive digital, evidence-based, and academic writing codes. The frequencies of these elements in documents and websites were examined. Professional samples of four OA documents and five academic and non-academic Romanian websites with extensions were processed. Furthermore, information from a non-academic official website concerning social protection functionality was observed, identified, and measured. We concluded that academic writing is not included as an independent course in the curricula of Romanian social work programs at universities; this topic is rarely researched. Digital and evidence-based education is also a marginalized topic in socio-human scientific resources. OA information, laws, reports, and statistics were identified. Information on scientific research, academic–non-academic partnerships, descriptions of good practices, and human resources information was lacking. In conclusion, this study contributes to increasing productivity and developing digital academic skills in social work education and research. Full article

High unemployment rates, inaccessible housing markets, and funding challenges create barriers to finding suitable housing for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who have less obvious support needs, also known as autistic adults. While public and community housing services in Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ) may be an option, a lack of accessible designs leaves families uncertain about future care options. This paper, part of the MBIE-funded Public Housing and Urban Regeneration: Maximising Wellbeing research programme in partnership with registered Community Housing Provider, Te Toi Mahana (TTM), takes an exploratory approach to ask how public and community housing can support and help enable semi-independent living for autistic adults. It investigates how design elements—such as dwelling layouts, material choices, colour schemes, lighting, acoustics, shared and community spaces, and external environments—impact the wellbeing of autistic adults. By extension, insights may also inform private housing design. The study focuses on autistic adults who may be considered ‘mid-to-high’ functioning or those who have been previously diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, whose housing needs are often overlooked. It develops guiding principles and detailed guidance points for public and community housing, informed by the literature, case studies, and data from a photo elicitation study and interviews undertaken with autistic adults in AoNZ. These guiding principles are tested through the speculative redesign of a large TTM site in Newtown, Wellington, AoNZ. Findings should be of interest to government agencies, housing providers, architects, stakeholders, and others involved in shaping the built environment, as well as autistic adults and their supporters, both in AoNZ and internationally. Full article

The UN’s “Global Agenda for Change” focused on global challenges, with the aim of improving quality of life. The focus on People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, Partnership, and Integrated Action (EU) orients its efforts towards socially needed change. Although the above perspectives, which ultimately shape the goals of sustainable development, refer in effect to the security of the functioning of societies and economies, this issue has not been sufficiently explored in the literature. Taking the above into account, this paper explains the aspect of people’s sustainable security and well-being, and also indicates the importance of determining the social competences needed for a broadly understood sustainable future, which is the main goal of this article. Considering the importance of sustainable awareness among the younger generation, who are responsible for the future modeling of the pace and direction of sustainable changes, the analysis of the literature in the practical findings was supported by qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as statistical analysis techniques using PQstat software, to ensure in-depth research. The results confirm that the studied population generally has good knowledge of the idea of sustainable development. Importantly, this population combines development in a sustainable direction with actions to strengthen people’s safety and well-being. It should be noted that the studied population is most strongly aware of the environmental pillar of sustainable development, suggesting potential to improve knowledge in this area—which is crucial for effective development towards a safe future and important for future decision-makers (the young generation). The findings can serve as a source of information for teams designing study programs and information campaigns on sustainable development in order to further strengthen social education in the studied area. Full article

This qualitative study examines how children living in a public housing neighborhood engage in multimodal, embodied meaning-making to restory their community. Focusing on two participants and in partnership with The Kids Club, this paper explores children’s spatial reclamation through embodied and spatialized literacies, complicating stories where children assert whose stories matter and why. Drawing on nexus analysis and narrative inquiry, this study conceptualizes the body as central to cognition and comprehension through texts in action. The sisters spatially reclaim neighborhood narratives via walking tours, heart maps, and photographs that function as multimodal action texts. These practices invite a rethinking of comprehension beyond traditional textual modes, illuminating how children navigate and transform literacy landscapes. This work contributes to conversations about equity in literacy environments and calls on educators and researchers to honor children’s multimodal literacy practices as vital forms of critical comprehension, storytelling, and belonging. Full article

The Language, Culture, and Knowledge-building through Science (LaCuKnoS) project tests and refines a model of science teaching and learning that brings together current research on the role of language in science communication, the role of cultural and community connections in science engagement, and the ways people apply science knowledge to their daily decision making. One key component of the model brings families together as co-learners and co-teachers through family learning experiences. We describe our work to promote more robust family conversations about science in our lives within an existing research practice partnership, using a two-tiered qualitative conversational analysis to compare the family conversations that result from three family engagement models: (a) family science festivals; (b) family science workshops; and (c) family science home learning. More specifically, this paper addresses the question: How do families describe and evaluate science in their lives and communities during family conversations that occur during each of these three engagement models? Discourse analysis using the appraisal dimension of systemic functional linguistics highlights the affective components of families evaluating science in their lives, as well as how each model provided unique affordances for different communicative goals. These findings are used to propose a set of design principles to guide the continued exploration of community-sustaining and family-centric models of family engagement as a key strategy for broadening science participation. Full article

There are considerable debates about the impact of rural residential land consolidation (RRLC) on villagers. Rather than engaging in the ongoing debates of either/or choices again, this article intends to analyze the mechanisms by which RRLC benefits villagers in a specific time and location. Using L town as an example, this article demonstrates that the mechanisms by which RRLC works are dependent on the adaptive property rights functions of rural residential land (RRL), which emerged from the spontaneous and endogenous interactions among actors. Functional adjustment and substitution reconfigure the property rights functions to balance the interests of various actors. The supportive partnerships between actors make the reconfiguration process implementable, as well as ensuring that the pre-existing property rights functions and the desired functions of the various actors can be considered. The findings may provide a new perspective on evaluating RRLC and the reform of property rights, as well as valuable insights on improving the performance of government interventions. Full article

Establishing a partnership necessitates agreeing on how to divide future profits or losses. We consider parties who wish to contract on the division of uncertain future profits. We propose to divide profits according to the Raiffa–Kalai–Smorodinsky (K-S) solution, which is the intersection point of the feasible region’s boundary and the line connecting the disagreement and ideal points. It is the only function which satisfies invariance to linear transformations, symmetry, strong Pareto optimality, and monotonicity. We formulate the general problem of designing a contract which divides uncertain future profit between the partners and determines shares of each partner. We first focus on linear and, later, non-linear contracts between two partners, providing analytical and numerical solutions for various special cases in terms of the utility functions of the partners, their beliefs, and the disagreement point. We then generalize the analysis to any number of partners. We also consider a contract which is partially based on the parties’ financial contribution to the partnership, which have a positive impact on profit. Finally, we address asymmetric K-S solutions. K-S solutions are seen to be a useful predictor of the outcome of negotiations, similar to Nash’s bargaining solution. Full article

Reviews of literacy coaching show positive outcomes for teaching and learning, yet also that coaching’s impact varies widely, especially at increased scale. Thus, some scholars argue the quality of coaching interactions may matter more than broad coaching actions (e.g., co-planning, observing). Situated within Habermas’s notion of “public sphere”, we used discourse analysis to examine video-recorded pre- and post-interviews, coaching meetings, and coach retrospective think-aloud protocols of a literacy coach and elementary school teacher who described their partnership as “successful”. We examined participants’ values expressed about coaching; how each participant positioned themselves, each other, and the coaching context; and the nature of the coach–teacher discourse therein to answer the following question: what occurs in the interactional space between a coach and teacher when engaged in coaching meetings? We found four categories of values focused on participatory choice, their sense of connectedness, knowledge development, and their approach to working with/as a coach. Further, participants’ positionings signified agency for both the coach and teachers in the interactional space. While bracketing and leveraging their own authority, the coach’s language choices promoted teachers’ agency within the interactional space, providing insight into how language functions to shape the “public sphere” of coaching interactions. Full article

The emergence of InsurTech has significantly transformed the traditional insurance industry, leading to the development of a new ecosystem characterized by digital intermediation, strategic partnerships, and increasing interdependence among actors. This paper investigates the structural configuration of the InsurTech ecosystem, emphasizing its role in reshaping how value is created, delivered, and captured across the industry. Based on a sample of 364 active InsurTech firms from 2020 to 2023, the research employs network analysis to map the interactions and co-occurrences among seven defined archetypes: Enablers, Innovators, Connectors, Integrators, Protectors, Transformers, and Disruptors. The findings reveal a trend toward higher density and functional complementarity among archetypes by providing a framework for understanding the dynamics of the InsurTech ecosystem and the strategic implications. Building on these findings, this paper introduces a novel five-phase framework for understanding the ecosystem’s evolution: (1) digitalization and technologies, (2) customer-centric approach, (3) data and analytics, (4) platform-based business models, and (5) ecosystem partnerships. This research advances the theoretical understanding of InsurTech as a networked system of role-based interdependencies and provides a methodological approach to analyzing this scenario through network theory. Furthermore, it contributes to academic discourse and industry practice, offering practical guidance for insurers, startups, and policymakers by enabling actionable insights into the strategic positioning of InsurTech archetypes within the evolving insurance industry landscape. Full article

The Malabo Declaration commits African Union member states to eliminating hunger by 2025. Progress toward this target has been uneven and poorly understood. While some countries have recorded gains in non-hunger thematic areas such as finance, trade, resilience to climate variability, and governance and accountability mechanisms, the extent to which these improvements contribute to hunger reduction remains unclear. This study investigates whether performance in non-hunger areas, as measured through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Biennial Review C-scores, is statistically associated with outcomes under Commitment 3, which focuses on hunger reduction. We used random effects panel regression model covering 55 African countries from 2017 to 2023, the analysis identifies five significant predictors: agricultural GDP and poverty reduction (PC 4.1), foreign private investment (PC 2.3), multi stakeholder coordination (PC 1.2), inclusive public–private partnerships (PC 4.2), and trade policies (PC 5.2). Investment in resilience (PC 6.2) and capacity for planning and monitoring (PC 7.1) showed marginal associations. Our findings suggest that institutional presence alone does not drive hunger outcomes. We reflect that what matters is the structure, inclusiveness, and functionality of these mechanisms, including whether investments reach food-insecure populations, coordination platforms influence decisions, and policies adapt to local conditions. This study concludes that some high-performing categories fail to deliver tangible hunger reduction benefits when implementation is fragmented or disconnected from context. These findings challenge how progress is currently measured and interpreted at the regional level. Finally, we reiterate that as the region prepares for the post-2025 agenda, future strategies must directly link agricultural transformation to hunger reduction through targeted interventions and accountable institutions. Full article

The adaptive reuse of urban structures is gaining significant attention due to its multiple benefits for sustainable urban development. Current research on repurposing initiatives provides valuable insights that can guide these practices from a research-based perspective. This paper aims to systematically review the existing literature on the adaptive reuse of buildings to develop a framework that outlines studies and findings on how repurposing practices contribute to specific sustainable development goals and their targets. The systematic literature review focuses on research published from 2018 to the end of 2024, serving as the foundation for this framework. The findings indicate that repurposing projects can make direct contributions to nine sustainable development goals. The strongest impacts were identified in relation to goals 4, 11, and 17. For goal 4, repurposing projects serve as valuable case studies, demonstrating how existing architecture can function as an asset that benefits urban sustainability. Concerning goal 11, the literature emphasises the importance of inclusivity in decision making throughout various stages of adaptive reuse and highlights the protection of unique architectural features as a strategy to enhance social capital and provide cultural and economic improvements. Adaptive reuse supports goal 17 by fostering public–private partnerships and encouraging transparent policy communication, which aids the development of new policies focused on sustainability. The results can assist urban planners, architects, and developers in making research-based decisions regarding underutilised buildings in urban contexts. Full article

Objective: Malnutrition remains a global challenge to child development, with urban slums in India experiencing high rates of protein deficiency. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a low-cost, fish bycatch-derived protein supplement in supporting catch-up growth among malnourished children. Methods: Using the Sustainable Community Partnership and Empowerment (SCOPE) model, we implemented a 90-day intervention with daily 10 g of Advanced Protein Powder (APP), produced from underutilized fish bycatch. Forty-six malnourished children (aged 3–6) from Bengaluru slums were randomized into a Control group receiving caloric support or an APP supplement group. Growth indicators, cognition, and caregiver perspectives were assessed. Results: Children receiving the APP supplement showed a significant increase in the weight-for-age percentile (underweight), rising by 7.59%, compared to 0.59% in the Control group (p = 0.02185). Muscle growth, measured by mid-upper arm circumference, also improved significantly in the APP Group (p < 0.05). In the first month, APP supplementation led to a significant height gain of 1.86 cm (p < 0.001), whereas the Control group showed no change (p > 0.05). Additionally, APP supplementation enhanced cognitive function, visual processing, short-term memory, and planning ability, with sustained effects at six months (p < 0.05). Caregivers reported noticeable improvements in children’s vitality, appetite, focus, and engagement in social and learning activities. Conclusions: Bycatch-derived protein supplementation, implemented through the SCOPE model, enhanced physical growth, behavior, and cognition in malnourished children in urban slums. Future studies should investigate the long-term effects, scalability, and adaptability of this sustainable solution for addressing child malnutrition. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) has significant potential to transform small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), yet its adoption is often hindered by challenges such as limited financial and human resources. This study addresses this issue by investigating the core AI technologies adopted by SMEs, their broad range of applications across business functions, and the strategies required for successful implementation. Through a systematic literature review of 50 studies published between 2016 and 2025, we identify prominent AI technologies, including machine learning, natural language processing, and generative AI, and their applications in enhancing efficiency, decision-making, and innovation across sales and marketing, operations and logistics, finance and other business functions. The findings emphasize the importance of workforce training, robust technological infrastructure, data-driven cultures, and strategic partnerships for SMEs. Furthermore, the review highlights methods for measuring and optimizing AI’s value, such as tracking key performance indicators and improving customer satisfaction. While acknowledging challenges like financial constraints and ethical considerations, this research provides practical guidance for SMEs to effectively leverage AI for sustainable growth and provides a foundation for future studies to explore customized AI strategies for diverse SME contexts. Full article