Search Results (4,378)

This research paper examines the spatial and time variation of demographic dependency in Europe in a 30-year horizon of the evolution of the demographic dividend regarding the economic dependency ratio (ADR1). We used the Curve Fit Forecast tool to estimate the trends of ADR1 in each of the EU Member States using data on Eurostat projections and a sophisticated geostatistical analysis tool developed in ArcGIS Pro 3.2.2. The findings indicate that the dependency in all countries has increased significantly in a statistically significant manner as the Gompertz function has appeared as the best curve in a third of the cases. It is an S-shaped asymptotic behaviour of this function that effectively describes the nonlinear patterns of acceleration and saturation of demographic ageing. As indicated in the analysis, the European regions are increasingly moving apart, with the southern and eastern nations such as Romania demonstrating the most alarming decline in ADR1. These trends highlight the need to reform labour market policies and social protection mechanisms to an ageing population. The paper combines the curve-fitting, descriptive statistics (median, skewness, interquartile range (IQR)) with time clustering (value, correlation, and Fourier) to provide an effective, replicable approach to early warning and policy prioritisation. Overall, the results highlight the importance of integrating predictive spatial modelling and demographic economics to support anticipatory and evidence-based policy decisions. The proposed approach proves to be a robust and transferable framework, applicable to a wide range of socio-economic phenomena characterised by inertia and structural change. Future research should extend the analysis to subnational levels, incorporate additional explanatory variables, and develop scenario-based simulations, including multivariate Gompertz-type models, to further enhance both predictive accuracy and policy relevance in the context of emerging structural labour scarcity. Full article

Adaptive recommendation mechanisms are widely used to personalise digital learning environments; however, many existing approaches prioritise algorithmic optimisation while providing limited insight into how recommendation behaviour aligns with pedagogically structured instructional artefacts, such as worksheets. To address this gap, this paper proposes a hybrid recommendation approach for adaptive worksheet generation that integrates content-based and collaborative filtering with explicit pedagogical constraints derived from Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. The system ranks and selects learning and evaluation objects across cognitive levels by combining learner profiles, behavioural signals, and similarity-based information within a unified scoring framework. A simulation-based evaluation was conducted to examine the internal behaviour, stability, and instructional alignment of the recommendation engine under controlled conditions, using Bloom-aligned worksheets and synthetic learner profiles. The analysis focuses on expected–actual alignment and adaptive variation across cognitive levels rather than learning outcomes. Results indicate strong alignment with the intended instructional structure at lower cognitive levels, while bounded and interpretable adaptive variation emerges at higher levels. Evaluation object recommendations showed high agreement with the instructional design, exceeding 95% across simulated conditions. Overall, the study demonstrates how hybrid recommendation mechanisms can support adaptive content selection in pedagogically structured learning scenarios, offering a transparent and robust foundation for information-driven educational systems. Full article

This study evaluated the feasibility of developing 3D-printable chontaduro (Bactris gasipaes) gel inks. Freeze-dried chontaduro pulp and encapsulated Lactiplantibacillus plantarum were used. Two formulations were analysed: a control (ChC) and a probiotic ink (ChLp) containing 10% (w/w) microencapsulated cells in a maltodextrin–whey protein carrier. Both were baked at 140 °C under zero humidity and evaluated for water activity, colour, texture, and sensory properties. Rheological analysis showed shear-thinning behaviour for both inks. Notably, ChLp had higher storage (G’) and loss (G”) modulus, which may indicate structural reinforcement by the carrier. Furthermore, FTIR suggested enhanced protein–polysaccharide interactions and ionic cross-linking. Both inks were found to be extrudable; however, ChLp showed a 4.1% reduction in printed height. Baking reduced water activity (aw < 0.88) and caused Maillard browning, which was more pronounced in ChLp. With respect to microbial viability, Ltp. Plantarum viability (~7.1 log CFU/g) was maintained after extrusion but lost after baking. Sensory evaluation indicated formulation-dependent differences in colour (greater yellowness) and texture (reduced adhesiveness, increased hardness) for ChLp. Overall, these findings showed chontaduro gel as a viable matrix for 3D food printing, with the encapsulated carrier altering physicochemical and sensory descriptors. Full article

This paper investigates federated multi-centre liver tumour classification from contrast-enhanced CT under realistic data heterogeneity and domain shift. To address the practical constraint that medical data are often siloed across institutions, we develop a FedProx-based federated learning pipeline that enables collaborative training without exchanging raw patient data. Using the LiTS dataset as the training domain, we construct a slice-level binary classification task based on voxel-level annotations, while rigorously assessing out-of-distribution generalisation on an external held-out dataset, 3D-IRCADb. We conduct comprehensive experiments across multiple backbone architectures, including ResNet-50, EfficientNet-B3, ViT-B/16, and MobileNetV3-Small, comparing FedProx and FedAvg under three heterogeneity intensities (IID, mild non-IID, and severe non-IID). Furthermore, we evaluate transfer learning strategies, ranging from frozen backbones to partial fine-tuning of the last stage, and perform ablations on the proximal coefficient $\mu$ and local epochs E to characterise optimisation behaviour. Our results show that FedProx is generally comparable to FedAvg, with slightly more stable behaviour in some heterogeneous settings. We also observe a clear validation-to-external gap, indicating that external-domain robustness remains challenging and requires cautious interpretation for deployment. ImageNet pretraining yields consistent gains, particularly for data-sparse clients, while partial fine-tuning enhances adaptation to CT-specific features. Finally, MobileNetV3-Small offers a favourable performance–efficiency trade-off by reducing communication payload and computation cost, supporting practical deployment on resource-constrained clinical edge devices. Full article

Publicly available electricity datasets from operational industrial facilities remain limited due to instrumentation cost, retrofit complexity, and data governance constraints. This paper presents an openly accessible dataset of asset-level electrical energy measurements collected from a medium-scale industrial manufacturing facility over an approximately one-year observation window, with staged commissioning resulting in heterogeneous temporal coverage. The dataset includes time-series measurements from production machinery, auxiliary systems, and distribution-level assets instrumented using a heterogeneous fleet of Ethernet and RS-485 energy meters integrated via industrial gateways and programmable logic controllers. Measurements were acquired via a SCADA-based logging infrastructure and exported from an operational SQL historian. The publicly released dataset comprises fixed 15 min aggregated energy and power metrics derived from high-frequency SCADA telemetry. In its released ALL-phase representation, the dataset comprises measurements from 43 monitored assets and 1,039,873 15 min windows, corresponding to 2.96 GWh of measured electrical energy. Mean window-level data coverage is 99.99%, and 97.72% of ALL-phase windows satisfy the dataset’s reliability criterion. Interval records include energy consumption, demand, data coverage metrics, and reliability indicators. The dataset reflects real-world industrial monitoring conditions, including mixed communication pathways and irregular sampling behaviour, and is intended to support research in industrial energy analytics, data quality assessment, load profiling, and operational energy modelling. Full article

Objective: This cross-sectional study investigated whether the frequency of waking-state and sleep-related bruxism is associated with sensitivity to occlusal tactile stimuli (i.e., occlusal tactile acuity) in healthy individuals. Methods: Forty healthy participants (20 females and 20 males) completed the Oral Behavioural Checklist to assess the frequency of waking-state and sleep-related bruxism. Participants were stratified into groups representing low, medium, and high bruxism frequency. Occlusal tactile acuity was evaluated using articulating foils of different thicknesses (8–56 μm) and sham trials presented in random order. Each stimulus was tested six times. Participants indicated whether they perceived a foil between their teeth. Signal detection theory was applied to distinguish perceptual sensitivity from response strategy. Results: Detection accuracy increased with foil thickness. Individuals with a high frequency of sleep-related bruxism exhibited reduced detection of thinner foils (8–24 μm) compared with those with low frequency of sleep-related bruxism (p = 0.029). Additionally, participants with high-frequency waking-state or sleep-related bruxism were more reluctant to report occlusal contact, indicating a more conservative reporting strategy (p = 0.045 and p = 0.002, respectively). Conclusions: Higher frequency of sleep-related bruxism was associated with reduced detection of low-intensity occlusal stimuli and a more conservative reporting strategy. These findings indicate an association between sleep-related bruxism frequency and differences in occlusal tactile detection. However, as the bruxism assessment was based on self-reports, these findings should be interpreted with caution. Full article

The induced polarisation (IP) technique is a geophysical method used to measure chargeability and resistivity, providing crucial insights into subsurface geological structures. Traditionally, IP measurements have been instrumental in exploring disseminated sulphide deposits, leveraging the strong polarisation response of metallic particles. It provides valuable insights about rock mineralisation, matrix composition, and formation polarizability by analysing electrical parameters. However, their potential to predict metallurgical performance remains largely unexplored. This study evaluates whether IP parameters—chargeability and resistivity—can serve as geometallurgical indicators for copper sulphide ores. The evaluation integrates IP measurements with mineralogical and flotation data. Artificial pyrite–sand mixtures and five real ore samples from Mount Isa were analysed using the sample core IP tester and mineral liberation analysis, followed by collectorless flotation tests. Statistical analysis demonstrated a strong correlation between resistivity and chalcopyrite recovery (R² = 0.90, p = 0.99), as well as a moderate correlation between chargeability and chalcopyrite selectivity (R² = 0.72, p = 0.93). These findings demonstrate that IP captures key textural and electrochemical features governing flotation behaviour, including pyrite abundance, mineral liberation, and galvanic interactions. The results highlight IP as a promising rapid-assessment tool for identifying ore variability and forecasting flotation response, with potential integration into geometallurgical models and mine-to-mill optimisation. Further validation across broader ore domains is recommended to refine the predictive capability of IP-based indicators. Full article

Urban heat stress is a growing challenge in hot semi-arid cities, where neighbourhood urban design influences microclimate and outdoor comfort. This study evaluates the effect of neighbourhood spatial layout in Erbil city, using ENVI-met simulations. Five neighbourhoods with varying layouts were modelled under standardized conditions, including uniform building height, surface characteristics, and meteorological forcing. Hourly outputs of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, surface temperature, mean radiant temperature, universal thermal climate index, and sky view factor were analyzed after excluding the spin-up period. Results indicate that, while all neighbourhoods exhibited similar diurnal timing of thermal extremes, a key distinctive finding is the identification of a neighbourhood that behaves differently across seasons. The Pavilion neighbourhood remained cooler during summer conditions, while maintaining warmer thermal conditions during winter. This dual seasonal behaviour contrasts with the other neighbourhoods, which generally exhibit a trade-off between reduced summer heat stress and winter cooling. The Pavilion neighbourhood is distinguished by the presence of integrated water lagoons, suggesting that the blue infrastructure, in combination with spatial openness and greenery, can moderate thermal extremes. Overall, the study highlights the importance of neighbourhood-scale spatial design in mitigating urban heat and provides evidence to support the development of sustainable neighbourhoods. Full article

Background/Objectives: Reducing inappropriate use of antimicrobial agents in healthcare settings is a critical strategy to mitigate the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. Globally, the highest consumption of antimicrobials in human healthcare originates from antibiotic prescriptions made in General Practice settings. Small group learning has long held a key role in General Practice education, characterized by active participation, common learning goals, and opportunities for reflection. This mode of delivery has been explored as a potential approach to increase appropriate antibiotic prescribing, supported by research indicating that more didactic educational interventions are unlikely to effectively improve physician prescribing behaviours. This systematic review specifically sought to synthesise the evidence on the effectiveness of small group-based, interventions in improving appropriate antibiotic prescribing behaviours in general practice. Methods: A mixed methods systematic review was employed. Studies were eligible if they reported on in-person, small group-based educational interventions to improve antibiotic prescribing among GPs. Full-text screening resulted in 19 eligible studies. Key characteristics, such as study design, intervention content, and outcomes, were extracted. Results: The 19 included studies used single and multi-modal interventions, with 68% focusing on respiratory tract infections. Common topics were patient communication (n = 11) and adherence to prescribing guidelines (n = 8). Most (n = 11) reported positive outcomes like reduced prescribing and were acceptable to GPs. Conclusions: These types of interventions can be effective in increasing the appropriate use of antibiotics in General Practice and are well received by GP participants. However, further research is required on the optimal content delivered in interventions and their associated long-term impact. Full article

The indoor microclimate of museums plays an essential role in preserving priceless cultural heritage for future generations and in ensuring visitors’ comfort and health. In this context, the present study aimed to evaluate indoor air quality, the degree of fungal contamination, and visitors’ perceptions in a museum environment through an integrated, interdependent approach. Measurements of the physicochemical parameters of air quality (temperature, relative humidity, CO₂, TVOC, HCHO, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀, negative and positive ions and brightness) were carried out in three exhibition halls within a museum in Oradea, Romania, during the period January–August 2024. Fungal contamination was assessed using surface and air samples, with classical isolation and microscopic identification methods. Visitors’ perceptions were analysed using a standardised questionnaire that focused on perceived comfort and visit duration. The results showed that the parameters defining indoor air quality generally fell within the limits set by the international standards in force, with occasional exceedances. These conditions are associated with the presence of fungi of the genera Cladosporium, Penicillium, and Aspergillus in the air and on museum exhibits, which pose risks to human health and the deterioration of the exhibited materials. The statistical decision-making model determined the critical thresholds above which visitor behaviour changed visibly. The results highlighted the importance of maintaining a stable microclimate in museum spaces, not only for the protection of exhibits, but also for optimising the cultural experience. Indoor air quality indicators and fungal microflora can only affect vulnerable people or those with pre-existing conditions. Occasional visitors do not present a significant risk of developing new conditions, considering the limited duration of exposure. Full article

Household rainwater tanks (HRWTs) have re-emerged globally as a decentralised strategy to address water scarcity, climate variability, and increasing urban water demand. In several jurisdictions, including New South Wales, Australia, rainwater tanks have been chosen to meet the mandatory potable water reduction target in new residential developments for nearly two decades; however, growing evidence indicates persistent underutilisation and variable performance in practice. Despite their recognised benefits in reducing potable water demand, mitigating stormwater runoff, and enhancing urban resilience, the global HRWT research landscape remains fragmented across disciplinary and thematic boundaries. This paper presents a multifaceted review, defined here as an approach that synthesises multiple perspectives on the topic. It integrates systematic mapping of peer-reviewed literature with a critical thematic analysis across four dominant research domains: technological and design innovation, policy and governance frameworks, environmental performance, and social–behavioural dimensions. The findings reveal a strong research focus on technical optimisation, while policy effectiveness, environmental trade-offs, and household-level behavioural factors receive comparatively uneven attention. Regulatory and incentive-based instruments are shown to produce inconsistent outcomes, shaped by local institutional capacity to design, implement, enforce, and sustain programs, as well as by climatic context and household acceptance. Environmental assessments identify both benefits and burdens, including energy use, treatment requirements, and operational complexity. Social and behavioural studies indicate growing acceptance of household rainwater tank (HRWT) systems. However, financial constraints, local conditions, and ongoing maintenance demands continue to influence adoption and performance. A key insight from this review is the limited attention given to households’ lived experiences, particularly how users adopt, adapt, operate, and maintain HRWT systems over time. This gap constrains progress across technical, policy, environmental, and social dimensions and risks cycles of early policy uptake followed by stagnation. The review highlights the need to integrate household perspectives into future research, policy design, and industry practice to improve system performance, user experience, and the long-term contribution of HRWTs to sustainable urban water management. Full article

Environmental targets towards net-zero carbon concrete are increasing the demand for eco-efficiency in concrete production. Promising measures to increase sustainability include the combination of high levels of limestone fillers (LFs) and the use of advanced mix-design techniques, such as particle packing models (PPMs). However, there is still a limited understanding of the fresh and hardened state properties of eco-efficient mixtures; the literature suggests that mobility parameters (MPs; interparticle separation distance—IPS; maximum paste thickness—MPT) can help explain the fresh behaviour of concrete mixtures. Yet, the impact of MP values on fresh properties is still not fully understood. To address this gap, this study evaluates a reduced-complexity system comprising twelve concrete mortar fractions developed with distinct MP ranges and high LF contents (up to 52%). The use of mortar mixtures was intended to reduce the number of variables in the system and provide a clearer assessment of the role of mobility parameters. Time-dependent rheological behaviour (flow behaviour factor, torque, and viscosity) is analyzed and correlated with MP ranges to identify governing fresh state mechanisms. In addition, the relationships of IPS and MPT with compressive strength and porosity are evaluated to examine their relevance to the hardened state behaviour of low-carbon mixtures with reduced cement content. Results indicate that MPT and IPS can be used as practical indicators of rheological behaviour, with MPT showing the strongest influence on rheological response across all mixtures. Based on compressive strength and porosity measurements, empirical models are proposed to describe the effect of mobility parameter-based spacing concepts on hardened properties. Finally, the environmental performance of the optimized mixtures is assessed, confirming the potential of LF-rich, MP-tailored mixtures to contribute to low-carbon, net-zero concrete production. Full article

Name.Narrate.Navigate (NNN) is a trauma-informed program for justice-involved young people aged 12–18 years, recognising that experience and use of violence are often interconnected and may involve serious criminal behaviour, including vulnerability to criminal exploitation. NNN addresses a gap in evidence-based, culturally responsive tertiary interventions for this cohort in regional New South Wales (NSW), Australia, integrating dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) principles with Aboriginal ways of knowing and doing, co-designed through community-based participatory research (CBPR) with Aboriginal community members, young people, and frontline practitioners. The program aims to strengthen skills for self-awareness, self-regulation and healthy connection through relational, creative, and participatory approaches. Using a realist evaluation framework, this paper examines what works in NNN, for whom, and under what circumstances. Drawing on participant session ratings, practitioner observations, program documentation, and interviews, findings are organised across four domains: effects, mechanisms, moderators, and implementation. Indicative findings show that engagement, emerging changes in the narratives of self, and developing skills for self-regulation were most evident when trauma-informed and culturally safe practice was enacted within genuinely relational, strengths-based encounters. These conditions are identified and discussed as transferable principles for the field, key amongst them that intervention readiness must be treated as a capacity to be actively built rather than a precondition to be screened for; and that creative, participant-led methods represent an epistemological commitment to whose knowledge counts in practice. This case study contributes to a critically underserved evidence base by documenting not only what a tertiary youth violence intervention looks like, but the conditions under which it begins to work and for whom. Full article

Construction waste minimisation remains a persistent challenge in developing country contexts, where technical and regulatory deficiencies are often compounded by limited behavioural evidence on how professionals understand and respond to waste generation. This study examines the awareness, attitudes, perceptions, and self-reported waste minimisation practices of construction professionals in Lagos, Nigeria, to clarify how these cognitive factors relate to waste minimisation. Using a quantitative cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 243 construction professionals through a structured questionnaire and analysed using exploratory factor analysis, such as the relative importance index, the Kruskal–Wallis H test, and Spearman’s rank correlation. The findings indicate a high level of awareness of waste reduction strategies, with organised waste sorting for material reuse ranked the highest (RII = 0.868). However, 54.3% of respondents still perceived waste as an inevitable by-product of construction projects, revealing an important cognitive–behavioural gap. Spearman’s rank correlation showed no statistically significant association between awareness and attitudes (r = 0.113, p = 0.079) and no significant association between awareness and perceptions (r = 0.049, p = 0.452). A statistically significant but weak positive association was found between attitudes and perceptions (r = 0.204, p ≤ 0.001), which is consistent with the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) theoretical expectations but does not constitute a direct test of the full TPB model. The study contributes context-specific behavioural evidence showing that awareness alone may be insufficient to support waste minimisation unless accompanied by more favourable perceptions of feasibility and value. These findings have implications for behaviourally informed policy, professional training, and circular construction strategies in Nigeria and similar contexts. Full article

Human–elephant conflict (HEC) has emerged as a major conservation and socio-economic challenge across Asia, largely driven by habitat degradation and increasing human pressure within elephant ranges. In India, expanding agriculture, mining activities, and infrastructure development have progressively altered forest landscapes, restricting elephant movement and intensifying interactions with human settlements. This study examines the relationship between landscape dynamics and HEC in the West Singhbhum district, Jharkhand, India. A three-year field investigation (2018–2020) across four forest divisions—Porahat, Chaibasa, Kolhan, and Saranda—was integrated with multi-temporal land-use and land-cover (LULC) analysis from 2000 to 2020 to evaluate habitat changes and their influence on conflict patterns. During the study period, 157 human casualties and extensive crop and property losses were recorded, indicating the severity of the conflict in the region. Landscape analysis revealed a substantial decline in dense forest cover and a reduction of large core forest areas (>500 acres), accompanied by increasing agricultural expansion and forest perforation. NDVI trends further indicated widespread deterioration in vegetation condition, reflecting declining habitat quality. These structural landscape changes have fragmented elephant habitats and displaced movement routes toward human-dominated landscapes and are thus associated with a spatial clustering of conflict events, particularly in the Chaibasa Forest Division. In contrast, the Saranda Forest Division retains relatively intact forest cores and supports more stable elephant habitat conditions. The findings demonstrate that HEC in the region is strongly linked to habitat fragmentation and declining vegetation quality rather than random elephant behaviour. Maintaining large contiguous forest blocks, restoring landscape connectivity, and implementing targeted mitigation strategies are therefore essential for sustaining elephant populations while reducing conflict with local communities. Full article