Search Results (495)

Wearables design research often evaluates aesthetic and ergonomic features without capturing their emotional and cognitive effects on user experience and buying decisions. This paper investigates both dimensions for smartwatches as screen-based wrist-worn wearable devices (SBWWDs) among Millennials and Generation Z using Kansei Engineering to structure SBWWD design features into users’ emotional perception and affective preferences. The study examines four hypotheses: (H1a) aesthetic perception differs between Millennials and Generation Z, (H1b) aesthetic perception differs across genders within the same generation, (H2a) ergonomic perception and visual needs for smartwatches’ screen interfaces differ between Millennials and Generation Z, and (H2b) ergonomic preferences differ across genders within the same generation. The research adopts a two-phase design methodology. Phase I-A identifies key aesthetic attributes from market-leading smartwatches and develops controlled design stimuli using AI-assisted concept generation. A questionnaire-based survey captures demographic-linked aesthetic preferences and emotional responses, with emphasis on case shape, strap material, and wearable color, to psychological perception and preference in smartwatch product designs. Phase I-B examines ergonomic interface display preferences relevant to smartwatch screens, including contrast and polarity, using Likert scales and bipolar Semantic Differential Scales. Subsequently, participants evaluate the combined interface features’ stimuli through measures of task accuracy and completion, best/worst interface display selections, eye-tracking metrices analysis, as well as emotional and cognitive arousal provoked by psychological intention using the Self-Assessment Manikin. Further, a full factorial design experiment evaluates the effects of participants’ demographic variables, including generation and gender, as well as smartwatch design features, on aesthetics and ergonomics design perception and preference. Phase II applies Kansei Engineering principles by mapping design features to affective responses of Phase I. Findings provide a structured mapping of smartwatch design perception and preferences across generational and gender groups within the Egyptian market, supporting affective principles in SBWWD design guidelines. The study contributes an evidence-based framework that integrates aesthetic and ergonomic features through Kansei Engineering, aiming to enhance online purchasing in smartwatch devices. Full article

A central challenge in complex group decision-making is how to integrate heterogeneous types of information. Experts differ in background and experience, which leads to variation in their understanding of assessment attributes and in the forms of information they provide. Such information may include fuzzy semantic information, fuzzy semantic interval information, and uncertain information, increasing the complexity of the decision process. Traditional approaches commonly employ fuzzy set (FS) and intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) models to address group decision-making problems involving human cognitive judgments. These models constrain the sum of the membership degree (MD) and the non-membership degree (non-MD) to be equal to 1 and less than or equal to 1, respectively. However, when assessment information is insufficient, the MD and non-membership degree provided by experts may exceed this constraint. In addition, the score function (SF) and accuracy function (AF) used in FS and IFS do not account for indeterminacy, making them unsuitable for handling incomplete and hesitation information. To overcome these limitations, this study proposes a Pythagorean fuzzy stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis-based method and introduces a new score function (NSF) and a new accuracy function (NAF) within the Pythagorean fuzzy set framework for complex group decision-making. An illustrative case on raw material vendor selection for shipbuilding enterprises is used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the method produces more reasonable and accurate vendor ranking outcomes. Full article

This study investigates young adults’ residential floor plan preferences through the Traditional 2D environment and immersive virtual environments and explores whether immersive virtual environments can more effectively identify young users’ expressed preferences under simulated pre-occupancy evaluation conditions. It further examines the relationship between subjective preferences and quantitative floor plan attributes. Eight small and medium-sized apartment units currently on the market in Fukuoka, Japan, were selected as case samples. First, a quantitative evaluation framework was established by combining space syntax analysis and principal component analysis, through which floor plan attributes were reduced to three interpretable dimensions: privacy, comfort, and functionality. Second, a within-subject experiment was conducted in which 20 young participants evaluated the same eight floor plans under both 2D and immersive virtual reality conditions using the Residential Spatial Satisfaction Questionnaire. The results show that the virtual reality condition produced significantly higher ratings for privacy, comfort, functionality, and overall satisfaction than the 2D condition. In addition, immersive virtual reality yielded greater plan discriminability and clearer group-level preference rankings, indicating that it more effectively reveals differences among alternative housing schemes. However, the preference rankings derived from subjective evaluation in virtual reality showed only limited agreement with the rankings generated by the principal component analysis-based physical framework, suggesting that objectively optimized spatial attributes do not automatically correspond to users’ expressed residential floor plan preferences. Overall, the findings indicate that current housing design logic may not fully respond to the experiential needs of potential young users, and that early-stage residential design evaluation should place greater emphasis on user-centered assessment. Compared with traditional 2D representation, immersive virtual reality provides a more effective medium for pre-occupancy housing evaluation and preference-based design decision making. Full article

This mixed-methods study investigates Italian primary school teachers’ perception-based attributions of giftedness, with specific attention to how gendered classroom recognition patterns may shape the visibility of girls in everyday educational practice. International research suggests that teachers’ professional judgement can be shaped by cognitive biases and gendered classroom norms, while many girls perceived as gifted may appear less visible within classroom recognition processes because their behaviours are often interpreted as more closely aligned with school expectations. Against this backdrop, the study examines whether similar dynamics emerge in the Italian context, where early recognition often relies on teachers’ classroom observation and educational decision-making. Quantitative data were collected through an online questionnaire administered to Italian primary school teachers in 2024. The survey explored teachers’ reported experience with pupils perceived as gifted (not formally assessed), their estimates of how many such pupils are present in their class, and the gender distribution they attributed to these pupils. Qualitative data were collected in 2025 through three focus groups, designed to deepen understanding of the observational criteria teachers use and the instructional decisions associated with recognising giftedness. Focus group transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Across the Italian sample, teachers widely reported having taught pupils they considered gifted; however, within teachers’ perception-based attributions, recognition was more frequently associated with boys than with girls. Focus group discussions corroborated this pattern and helped clarify its educational mechanisms: teachers frequently linked giftedness to behavioural salience and participation styles (e.g., visibility, assertiveness, and, at times, disruptiveness), whereas, within teachers’ accounts, girls perceived as gifted were often represented as more compliant and discreet, which may make them less visible through informal recognition criteria centred on behavioural salience. Overall, the findings point to a visibility gap in early classroom recognition and underscore the need for teacher education and practical, gender-responsive observational tools that broaden conceptions of giftedness beyond overt performance and support more equitable differentiated instruction, reducing the risk of missed recognition of gifted girls in primary school. Full article

Case-based reasoning (CBR) is an efficient intelligent decision-making approach, but traditional methods often neglect the weight and reliability of decision information and struggle with attribute heterogeneity and missing data. This study proposes a novel CBR method based on the generalized combination (GC) rule to overcome these limitations. We design differentiated similarity calculations for heterogeneous attributes, and construct basic probability assignments (BPAs) by grouping historical cases with identical similarity to handle missing data. Then, Deng entropy and Jousselme distance are used to characterize attribute weight and reliability, respectively. Discounted BPAs are recursively fused via the GC rule, and final decisions are derived through Bayesian approximation. A case study of typhoon disaster emergency decision-making demonstrates the superior performance of the proposed method. Full article

Background and Aims: Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) remains a leading cause of mortality worldwide, with lipid abnormalities playing a central role in disease development. While the causal role of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in ASCVD is well-established, the long-term population impact of combined lipid profiles, particularly the HDL-C/LDL-C ratio, remains less clearly quantified. This study aimed to estimate the lifetime burden of cardiovascular outcomes associated with different lipid risk profiles using a patient-level simulation framework. Methods: The authors analyzed projected lifetime ASCVD events across four HDL-C/LDL-C risk strata, ranging from low (≥0.45) to very high (<0.25), using the National Health Model Database of Projected and Estimated Outcomes (NHM-DPEO)—a digital twin of national healthcare systems built from multiple data sources, including national health and demographic statistics and estimates from the relevant literature. The framework is structured as a patient-level simulation model that projects individual health trajectories over a lifetime horizon. Model outputs were assessed for plausibility by comparison with published epidemiological estimates. Results: The NHM simulation revealed a strong, graded relationship between lipid profiles and cardiovascular survival. Life expectancy declined from 80.2 years in the lowest risk group (HDL-C/LDL-C ≥ 0.45) to 63.0 years in the very-high-risk group (HDL-C/LDL-C < 0.25), a reduction of 17.2 years, with 13.7 fewer QALYs. Similarly, participants with LDL-C > 5.0 mmol/L had a life expectancy 13.4 years shorter than those with LDL-C < 3.1 mmol/L. The burden of ASCVD increased exponentially with worsening lipid ratios: MI events rose from 5000 to 73,090 per 100,000 births, with onset in the highest risk group occurring as early as age 20. Ischaemic heart disease followed a similar pattern, showing up to 92% of events attributable to elevated lipid risk. While ischaemic stroke risk displayed a more complex pattern due to earlier MI mortality in high-risk groups, overall cardiovascular mortality and lifetime event burden were dominated by LDL-driven disease. These findings demonstrate that sustained LDL-C reduction and balanced HDL-C/LDL-C ratios confer substantial survival benefits across both sexes and all age groups. Conclusions: This study shows that lipid balance has a decisive influence on cardiovascular survival. Sustained LDL-C reduction and favourable HDL-C/LDL-C ratios markedly extend life expectancy and delay the onset of MI and IHD. The magnitude of this survival benefit highlights the need for early and continuous lipid control as a cornerstone of ASCVD prevention. The NHM quantifies these lifetime effects, offering valuable insights for targeted strategies that improve both longevity and quality of life. Full article

Despite the rapid institutionalization of ESG reporting mandates worldwide, the empirical question of whether ESG disclosure constitutes a structural, long-run determinant of corporate financial performance—rather than a cyclical or spurious co-trending artifact—remains unresolved. The prior literature predominantly employs short-panel estimators that assume stationarity and conflate long-run equilibrium effects with transitory associations. This study addresses that gap by applying a five-step non-stationary panel econometric framework to a sample of 479 S&P 500 firms across eleven GICS sectors over 2010–2022 (5084 firm-year observations), a period chosen to capture the full institutionalization of Bloomberg ESG reporting standards and to encompass two major macroeconomic stress episodes (the 2015–2016 commodity downturn and the COVID-19 shock). Im–Pesaran–Shin panel unit root tests confirm that ESG disclosure scores and financial performance measures are both integrated of order one. Pedroni residual-based panel cointegration tests decisively reject the null of no long-run relationship (Z = −62.38 for the ROA equation), establishing a stable cointegrating equilibrium. Fully Modified OLS and Dynamic OLS group-mean estimators yield bias-corrected long-run coefficients, and a panel error correction model quantifies short-run adjustment dynamics. The key finding is that a ten-point improvement in ESG disclosure is associated with a permanent nine-to-ten percentage-point gain in return on equity (FMOLS β = +1.023, p < 0.01; DOLS β = +0.914, p < 0.01), while the effect on return on assets is positive but more modest and sensitive to estimator choice. Complementary fixed-effects regressions reveal an asymmetric moderating role of macroeconomic uncertainty: equity market volatility (VIX) amplifies the ESG performance premium, whereas acute credit market stress (TED spread) attenuates it. Board governance variables are statistically insignificant across all five specifications, indicating that H3 (board governance) is not supported; this outcome is attributed to limited within-firm governance variation in the large-cap S&P 500 universe rather than a genuine absence of governance effects. The results are robust to lagged ESG measurement, winsorization, and alternative interaction specifications. The findings provide strong econometric evidence for the structural, permanent nature of the ESG–financial performance link in large-cap U.S. equities, with direct implications for mandatory disclosure policy and ESG-integrated investment strategies. Full article

The processing difficulty of subject relative clauses (SRCs) and object relative clauses (ORCs) in Mandarin Chinese has been a controversial issue in psycholinguistics. Memory-based accounts and experience-based accounts make contrastive predictions regarding the processing asymmetry. Given that older adults tend to have lower memory and richer language experience, the processing of relative clauses in older adults can reveal which theoretical account offers a more adequate explanation of sentence comprehension. The present study compared the processing of Mandarin SRCs and ORCs in older and younger adults using a self-paced reading paradigm. The results revealed that both groups showed lower accuracy for SRCs than ORCs, but this effect was larger in older adults. These age-related differences cannot be attributed to different strategic trade-off mechanisms and task experience. During online processing, older adults performed more slowly than younger adults, but no significant interaction was found between age and RC type. These findings suggest that aging affects sentence comprehension at the post-interpretive and decision processes, while online syntactic processing remains relatively preserved but globally slowed. The findings are largely consistent with memory-based accounts, indicating that age-related changes in sentence comprehension may be attributed to memory decline in older adults. Full article

This study addresses the increasing need to structure knowledge in the field of circular resource management, with a focus on energy efficiency and sustainable resilience. Previous studies have examined various taxonomies for the circular economy, yet a clear gap remains in understanding how energy efficiency and resilience serve as the main pillars for operational stability. This study is designed as a bibliometric analysis based on a selection of relevant scientific articles. The identified factors were extracted based on their frequency of occurrence in the literature and processed using statistical clustering techniques to group them into coherent categories. The results show that the field is defined by a set of interconnected factors that can be structured into distinct clusters, reflecting key dimensions such as operational performance, environmental impact, and system resilience. Specifically, the analysis demonstrates how energy-related attributes and resilience attributes act as stabilizing factors within closed-loop systems. Based on these findings, this study proposes a structured framework that organizes the identified factors into a clear configuration. This framework provides a reference point for researchers who aim to develop models in this area and for practitioners involved in the design and optimization of circular systems. This study contributes by offering a structured view of the field and by supporting the development of consistent analytical and decision-making approaches grounded in the necessity of balancing resource recovery with system stability. Full article

Green communities play a critical role in advancing sustainable development; however, evaluating their performance and identifying appropriate improvement strategies remain challenging due to uncertain, incomplete, and multidimensional information. This study formalizes three key processes essential to green community governance—sustainability evaluation, attribute reduction, and decision-rule generation—and proposes a rough set-based decision framework that integrates quantitative indicators, expert knowledge, and rule-based reasoning. Using empirical assessment data from Nantou County, the framework identifies the most influential determinants of community performance, including accessibility-related facilities, remote-area status, and socioeconomic conditions. The results reveal clear drivers of sustainable community performance. Remote villages lacking community hubs face structural barriers to participation. Communities without facilities supporting vulnerable groups tend to stall at the registration stage, while bronze-level villages require equity-focused engagement despite possessing stronger resource endowments. Notably, silver-level performance is consistently associated with moderate income levels and moderate income disparity, underscoring socioeconomic balance—rather than economic extremes—as a key precondition for stable sustainability advancement. Together, these findings provide interpretable, evidence-based guidance for policymakers and community managers to identify performance gaps and allocate resources more effectively. Full article

Mamluk historiography is predominantly centred on the political actions of the ruling elite, particularly sultans and senior officials, whose careers and decisions are extensively documented in chronicles, biographical dictionaries, and autobiographical writings. In contrast, lower-ranking members of the ruling hierarchy appear only sporadically and occupy a structurally marginal position within historical narratives. Legendary and folkloric traditions are similarly marginalised, typically remaining outside the scope of official historiography and surviving primarily through oral transmission or in sources linked to socially and politically peripheral groups. Although a small number of reports attributed to lower-ranking mamluks are preserved in certain texts, they were largely ignored by Mamluk historians. This article examines Mamluk accounts of the legend of the “Green City” located in Tīh Banī Isrāʾīl (the Wilderness of the Children of Israel) in Sinai. The story is attributed to the Mamluks, who allegedly encountered the city while fleeing to Bilād al-Shām after the assassination of al-Amīr Fāris al-Dīn Aqṭāy by Sultan al-Muʿizz Aybak in 652/1254. Despite its proximity to this major political event, the narrative survives only in brief references by six historians across the entire Mamluk period (648–923/1250–1517). By analysing the transmission and marginalisation of this account, the article argues that the legendary narrative of the Green City offers a revealing case study of how extraordinary desert traditions were selectively incorporated into Mamluk historiography. A microhistorical and critical reading of the story further illuminates the interplay between oral testimony, desert knowledge, and the historiographical practices that shaped the preservation, adaptation, or omission of such narratives. Full article

Despite growing interest in sustainability, many consumers hesitate to purchase green sports products. This study investigates the reasons behind such hesitation by identifying and quantifying consumer-perceived barriers to purchasing green sports products using conjoint analysis. Four major barriers—price premium, quality concerns, lack of information, and credibility issues—were identified through a multi-stage process involving preliminary consumer surveys, an extensive literature review, and expert consultation. Data were collected from 294 consumers who evaluated 12 orthogonally designed product profiles representing different combinations of these barrier attributes. The results indicate that price premium is the most influential barrier overall and among consumers with low environmental involvement, whereas credibility concerns, particularly greenwashing, constitute the primary source of purchase hesitation among consumers with high environmental involvement. Further analysis of perceived purchase barrier configurations indicates that a 10% price premium, limited product variety, distrust of environmental certifications, and insufficient product information are jointly associated with higher perceived purchase resistance. These findings reveal that the prioritization of perceived purchase barriers differs systematically across consumer groups defined by environmental involvement. By clarifying the decision-making barriers that drive consumer hesitation, this study contributes to sustainability research by advancing the understanding of sustainable consumption from a behavioral decision-making perspective. The findings also provide practical insights for sporting goods brands seeking to reduce purchase resistance through strategies tailored to different levels of consumer environmental involvement. Full article

This study addressed how business administration training influenced perceptions of sustainable development goals (SDGs) within park management, situating the research at the intersection of sustainability education and applied management practice. A controlled experiment was conducted in Chongqing Central Park, where 100 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either an integrated business administration training program or a conventional park management program for two months, followed by standardized questionnaire surveys and statistical analyses, including analysis of variance and multivariate linear regression. A pretest verified randomization equivalence. The results demonstrated that participants who received integrated training reported higher perceptions of SDGs related to quality education, climate action, and life on land, alongside improvements in entrepreneurial mindset, social and economic value preferences, multitasking awareness, decision-related attributes, and interest in nature education. Regression analyses revealed that SDG perception was primarily strengthened by social value orientation and entrepreneurial mindset factors, whereas certain employee attributes and elements of nature education satisfaction exerted negative or weaker effects, particularly among trained participants. In contrast, the control group showed limited and mostly insignificant relationships, with SDG perception relying largely on baseline attitudes. Overall, the findings indicate that embedding business administration concepts into park management training enhances multidimensional sustainability awareness and provides evidence that socially oriented entrepreneurship and structured management thinking contribute meaningfully to SDG perception formation without overstating causal claims. Full article

Sustainable forest operations require operational planning tools that effectively integrate productivity, environmental conservation, and social acceptability, particularly within complex and environmentally sensitive forest systems. In Mediterranean small-scale forestry, harvesting decisions are frequently guided by expert judgment rather than by systematic and transparent planning frameworks. This reliance on subjective decision making can result in heterogeneous management practices and, in some cases, suboptimal operational outcomes. This study aims to validate a GIS-based Analytic Hierarchy Process (GIS–AHP) decision support system for the selection of harvesting and wood systems in the chestnut coppices of central Italy and to assess the robustness of its recommendations when expert judgments are provided by different stakeholder groups. The methodology integrates spatial data and multi-criteria analysis to evaluate the suitability of three extraction systems (forwarder, cable skidder, and cable yarder) and three wood systems (Cut-To-Length, Whole-Tree Harvesting, and Tree-Length) across 162 Forest Management Units (1332.5 ha), using weights elicited from four stakeholder categories (researchers, technicians, forest owners, and workers; n = 144). Results show statistically significant differences in mean suitability values among stakeholder groups for all systems; however, convergence at the operational decision level is high. The cable skidder is recommended over 94%–100% of the area depending on the stakeholder category, with full agreement among all groups in 87.7% of the Forest Management Units. For wood systems, Whole-Tree Harvesting is selected over 96.1% of the analysed area, with agreement in 95.1% of the Forest Management Units. Divergences are therefore limited and attributable to differences in AHP weighting structures. Overall, the findings demonstrate that the GIS–AHP approach provides stable and transferable recommendations despite variability in expert perspectives, supporting its applicability as a transparent and robust decision support tool for operational planning in chestnut coppices and similar Mediterranean forest systems. Full article

Ecological resettlement (ER), or conservation-led displacement, is widely implemented to safeguard biodiversity but often produces complex socio-ecological outcomes. This study assessed the environmental justice (both social and ecological) impacts of ER in Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) using an enhanced (including social, ecological, and environmental aspects) environmental justice (EJ) framework. Data were collected from 240 households across all resettled villages within the Chitwan and Parsa National Parks (NPs) of Nepal through household interviews, key informant interviews, focus groups, and field observations, supplemented by policy reviews, reports, and unpublished documents. Household demographics indicated an average family size of 5.5, gender parity (664 females, 658 males), and diverse caste/ethnic composition (ethnic: 146 households; higher caste: 64; lower caste: 6). Wealth distribution and literacy were uneven, with disparities in land ownership, assets, and social positions. Social and ecological justice outcomes were analysed using chi-square and McNemar tests. We observed a significant difference (p < 0.05) in substantive justice (food, shelter, clothing, and security) attributes before and after the resettlements. Similarly, significant improvements post-resettlement were observed in procedural and recognition justice: participation in decision-making increased from 43% to 62% (χ² = 12.34, p < 0.05). However, recognition of Indigenous knowledge and FPIC rights remained low, with 93% of households reporting inadequate acknowledgment (χ² = 198.5, p < 0.05). Distributive justice indicators, including access to compensation and forest resources, showed mixed outcomes, with 52% reporting fair compensation and 48% citing inequities (p < 0.05). Ecological outcomes also shifted significantly: forest cover decreased in 65% of surveyed areas post-resettlement, while grassland extent increased in 28% (χ² = 27.4, p < 0.05). Water source accessibility declined for 48% of households (χ² = 21.6, p < 0.05), and bushfire incidence decreased by 15% (χ² = 9.8, p < 0.05). Composite scoring revealed strong linkages between social justice deficits and ecological downturn in the resettled areas, suggesting that inadequate participation, recognition, inequitable compensation, and ecological degradation shift the issues from parks to the outside and exacerbate environmental vulnerability. These findings demonstrate that ER can achieve partial ecological objectives inside the parks but often perpetuates social inequities and ecological downturn in the resettled areas, undermining the long-term sustainability of the socio-ecological landscape. The study highlights the critical need to integrate social justice, participatory governance, and ecological monitoring into resettlement planning. Future policies should be grounded in the understanding that conservation effectiveness and social equity are mutually reinforcing, and that ignoring justice dimensions risks undermining both biodiversity outcomes and human wellbeing. Full article