Search Results (6,145)

Water sustainability plays a critical role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as it influences human well-being, ecosystem integrity, and long-term development pathways. Over the past three decades, a substantial body of research has emerged on water sustainability; however, there remains a limited synthesis of how sustainability has been assessed, how assessment approaches have evolved, and the extent to which they align with the multidimensional intent of the SDGs. This study addresses the gap by combining a systematic review conducted using the PRISMA framework and bibliometric analysis from 1995 to 2025. The results show a marked acceleration in research output after 2015 following the formal adoption of the SDGs, with concentrations in a small number of countries and research hubs. Water sustainability assessment is mainly shaped by technically oriented indicator-based frameworks that emphasise water availability, water quality, and management performance. While these approaches have enabled comparability and methodological consistency, they often provide a partial representation of sustainability with limited integration of governance processes, social equity, cultural contexts, indigenous knowledge, and ecosystem services. The findings highlight the need for assessment approaches that go beyond technical metrics to more integrative and context-sensitive frameworks that can inform policy, support adaptive decisions, and reflect the interconnected nature of sustainable development. Full article

Indigenous Kichwa women in the Ecuadorian Amazon experience disproportionately high levels of obstetric violence, yet their experiences remain largely absent from national demographic data. This study aims to measure the prevalence and forms of obstetric violence among Kichwa women while demonstrating the utility of community-designed demographic tools for documenting marginalized reproductive health experiences. We developed a participatory survey in collaboration with Kichwa midwives and women, several of whom are co-authors, and administered 139 structured surveys and 69 ethnographic interviews across 43 Indigenous communities in the Napo province to women who had given birth in a public hospital within the past five years. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to estimate prevalence across domains of obstetric violence, and interviews were thematically analyzed to contextualize these patterns. Findings indicate pervasive obstetric violence, including non-consensual procedures, verbal and psychological abuse, structural barriers to care, and suppression of traditional practices such as midwifery and plant medicine. Over 80% of participants reported at least one non-consensual procedure and at least one form of cultural or epistemic suppression, with most experiencing violence across multiple domains. These results position obstetric violence in the Amazon as a compounded, population-level exposure shaped by structural, environmental, and cultural determinants, underscoring the need for intercultural health reforms and Indigenous-led models of health governance. Full article

The adoption of the Anishinabek Nation Child Well-Being Law (ANCWBL) has given birth to a framework for Indigenous communities in Ontario, Canada, to exercise self-determination in governing child and family services, including service delivery and authority over policy and funding. This means an end to child and family services agencies that serve First Nations on reserves and are bound by provincial standards and legislation following a protection-based model. Instead, it begins a system of customary care that genuinely respects and supports the primary role of parent/guardian, family, and community in prevention-focused child welfare in accordance with standards based on Anishinabek cultures and the practice of consent. This conceptual essay highlights an Indigenous feminist perspective on the ANCWBL’s significance and its ability to address the historical suffering stemming from colonial child welfare practices and to institute child and family services by reinstating the rights of Indigenous children and women’s leadership in care as a communal responsibility. Full article

Terms are specialized words and expressions used in particular disciplines, cultures, or fields. They usually carry precise meanings and aim to describe referents accurately and clearly. Due to differences in culture, history, and other factors across countries, the development of indigenous Chinese linguistic terms plays a vital role in bridging cultural gaps and promoting the dissemination of Chinese culture. These terms not only explain specific words in Chinese and describe unique linguistic phenomena, but also embody the core concepts and academic traditions of Chinese linguistics, thereby contributing to the global spread and development of Chinese civilization. In order to achieve cross-linguistic dissemination of indigenous terms, we construct a linguistically informed bilingual corpus encompassing a broad spectrum of linguistic subfields, together with novel methods for the automatic extraction and cross-linguistic alignment of terminologies. The resulting corpus contains over 22,000 aligned sentence pairs across nine linguistic domains, providing a robust foundation for bilingual term mining. Building upon this resource, we further propose a multi-channel graph neural network (MCGNN) that jointly models semantic, syntactic, sequential, and co-occurrence relations, thereby enabling multi-perspective reasoning and achieving more accurate bilingual term extraction and alignment. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach substantially improves the accuracy and consistency of bilingual term extraction, alleviates the resource scarcity in the linguistic domain, and provides a solid foundation for future research and applications in cross-linguistic knowledge sharing and academic communication. Full article

Chronic diseases—including diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and autoimmune disorders—remain the leading causes of global morbidity and mortality. While biomedical pathophysiology defines the etiology and progression of these conditions, cultural factors significantly modulate how patients perceive illness, engage in treatment, and adhere to medical recommendations. This review synthesizes evidence from cross-cultural studies, with a specific focus on medical manifestations and therapeutic challenges, to examine how sociocultural determinants intersect with biological disease processes. We highlight nuanced case comparisons between South Asian, East Asian, Middle Eastern, African, Latinx, and Indigenous populations, illustrating how cultural constructs such as collectivism, fatalism, stigma, reliance on traditional medicine, and health literacy directly influence outcomes in chronic disease management. Importantly, we integrate evidence-based recommendations for healthcare professionals, emphasizing culturally tailored interventions, precision medicine approaches, and the role of interdisciplinary care teams. Full article

The expansion of wind energy projects in Indigenous territories has intensified debates about the social legitimacy of corporate practices. In the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, the main wind corridor in Mexico, wind farms coexist with deeply rooted Zapotec governance systems, creating a complex interface between corporate responsibility and community well-being. Based on a survey of 184 workers employed by wind companies in the region, this study examines the relationship between perceived Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in its ethical, legal, and philanthropic dimensions, and social and economic well-being. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and Importance–Performance Map Analysis (IPMA), we found that legal and philanthropic CSR significantly enhance both types of well-being, whereas ethical CSR only affects social well-being. These findings reflect the perspective of workers as hybrid actors, simultaneously employees and members of Zapotec communities, and should be interpreted in light of the study’s limitations: its focus on employed individuals, cross-sectional design, and reliance on self-reported perceptions. The results contribute to global debates on symbolic versus substantive CSR, distributive justice, and the risk of “green colonialism” in energy transitions. Full article

Freeze–thaw cycles on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau inhibit microbial activity and challenge silage preservation. This paper aimed to elucidate how an indigenous, freeze–thaw-resistant Lactobacillus plantarum strain (LP160) improves oat silage quality under such stress. Oats were ensiled for 60 days under constant 20 °C (t) or freeze–thaw cycles (12 h at 20 °C/−5 °C; s) with or without LP160 inoculation. Samples after ensiling and 5-day aerobic exposure were analyzed for fermentation parameters, nutrients, microbiome, and non-targeted metabolomics using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). LP160 inoculation improved silage quality, as shown by the lower pH, ammoniacal nitrogen, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber contents as well as the greater amount of lactic acid. Key findings demonstrated that LP160 inoculation significantly enhanced Lactobacillus dominance, effectively curbed the growth of detrimental bacteria like Mucor, and regulated the microbial structure. During the aerobic exposure phase, the microbial community structures and successions varied under different temperature treatments. When inoculated under freeze–thaw conditions, the genus Bacillus increased, while Paenibacillus was not impeded. A total of 943 metabolites were identified, predominantly comprising amino acids, fatty acids, and the like. The expressions of metabolites with antioxidant and antibacterial properties were upregulated with LP160 inoculation. This led to the inhibition of protein hydrolysis and a reduction in ammonia–nitrogen production. The results of correlation analysis indicated that inoculating LP160 suppressed the proliferation of Mucor and enhanced the abundance of Torulaspora; meanwhile, the expression of L-palmitoylcarnitine involved in the fatty acid degradation pathway and fatty acid metabolism pathway was inhibited along with the generation of ammonia–nitrogen. Consequently, the degradation of fatty acids and proteins was restrained. The results of this paper provided new insights into the silage under freeze–thaw conditions. Full article

Domestic cattle represent one of the most significant evolutionary successes in the history of human–animal mutualism. This review synthesizes evidence from paleogenomics and modern population genetics, particularly recent pangenome analyses, to reconstruct the comprehensive evolutionary trajectory of cattle. We outline the two domestication events: the emergence of taurine cattle (Bos taurus) in the Fertile Crescent (~10,500 years ago) and zebu cattle (Bos indicus) in the Indus Valley (~8000 years ago). Following domestication, cattle dispersed globally alongside human migration, resulting in a complex genetic mosaic shaped by introgression with wild relatives and extensive admixture between lineages. By integrating data from mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome haplotypes, and whole-genome sequencing of modern, ancient, and wild samples, we reconstruct the detailed global dispersal of cattle. Furthermore, we dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying phenotypic diversity, emphasizing how natural selection has driven environmental adaptation, how artificial selection has optimized production traits, and how the emerging bovine pangenome unveils “hidden” genetic variations critical for climate resilience and disease resistance. Ultimately, this review summarizes the origin, dispersal and genomic diversity of cattle, offering vital insights for the conservation of indigenous genetic resources and the advancement of molecular breeding strategies in the face of a changing global climate. Full article

Crossbreeding with indigenous breeds is an important approach for improving pork quality. In this study, untargeted metabolomics and targeted lipidomics were applied to comprehensively characterize meat quality, metabolites, and lipids in Duroc × Guangdong small-ear spotted (DG) and commercial Duroc × (Landrace × Yorkshire) (DLY) pigs. Multivariate statistical analysis was used for differential comparison, compound screening, and breed discrimination. DG pigs presented better tenderness than DLY pigs, although their meat color and marbling scores were lower. Protein, amino acid, and fatty acid contents did not differ significantly between breeds (p > 0.05), but their metabolomic and lipidomic profiles showed marked differences. Metabolomics identified 13 differential metabolites, such as L-norleucine and L-phenylalanine. Lipidomics revealed 77 lipids with differential abundance between the two breeds, predominantly triglycerides and ceramides, with 76 being more abundant in DG pigs. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that amino acid metabolism was the main pathway enriched by the differential metabolites, whereas the differential lipids were primarily involved in glycerolipid metabolism and other related pathways. Correlation analysis indicated that breed influenced relationships among meat quality traits, metabolites, and lipids. These findings offer molecular insights into the meat quality characteristics of indigenous crossbred pigs. Full article

Reliable communications, accurate localization, and efficient safety monitoring remain critical bottlenecks for sustainable development in remote high-altitude regions. On the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, harsh topography and sparse infrastructure create a persistent “digital divide” that threatens human safety and limits field governance efficiency. This study aims to design, implement, and evaluate an integrated communication and navigation security assurance platform to bridge this gap. The specific research objectives are (i) to develop a hybrid high-precision positioning model integrating PPP-B2b, RTK, and MEMS inertial constraints; (ii) to implement an adaptive multi-link communication strategy combining BeiDou-3 short message communication (SMC), 4G LTE, and VHF; (iii) to design a lightweight SM1/SM2 security-and-compression framework optimized for bandwidth-constrained satellite messaging; and (iv) to conduct a mixed-methods field evaluation of technical performance and user-level impacts. A six-month field evaluation was conducted in Qinghai Province to validate the platform. Results show that the platform achieves sub-metre positioning accuracy across representative plateau scenarios (horizontal RMSE: 0.06–0.45 m). While terrestrial cellular links in marginal-coverage areas frequently failed (<15%), the BeiDou-3 SMC maintained stable message delivery (87.5–94.7%). Sustainability-oriented indicators suggest marked improvements in disaster resilience: the 95th-percentile emergency notification time was reduced from >180 min to <2 min, and effective route coverage increased from ~15% to ~95%. User surveys (n = 112) indicate high acceptance, with 91.1% of respondents reporting improved perceived safety, though usability gaps persist among non-professional groups. Overall, this indigenous satellite-based platform functions as a practical “social safety net,” narrowing digital exclusion and supporting UN sustainable development goals (SDG 9, 10, and 11). Full article

Cannabis is the most-used psychoactive drug in Aotearoa—New Zealand (NZ); recreational use remains illegal, while medicinal use was legalized in 2020. Cannabis use is associated with increased risk of injury; however, there is little known on the causes and circumstances of cannabis-related fatal injuries. This retrospective population study utilized coronial case files to describe the contribution and circumstances of cannabis-related fatal injuries in NZ. Between 2012 and 2016, cannabis was reported in 273 of 3599 unintentional/assault injury deaths (1.32 deaths per 100,000 person-years, 95% CI 1.17, 1.49). High-risk groups included males aged 15–44 years, Indigenous Māori, and those in deprived areas, for whom higher rates of post mortem testing were conducted. Cannabis-related fatalities mainly resulted from road crashes and multi-drug poisonings with concomitant alcohol use common, especially in traffic crashes on public roads (49% of concomitant use). Cannabis use was mainly observed in the decedent (n = 256, 94%). One in five deaths involved a worker, either as a user or as a bystander to another’s use. Coronial files identified important opportunities for safety countermeasures targeting cannabis use among drivers and its concomitant use with alcohol. Improved coverage of post mortem testing could address data limitations, including biased testing patterns and missing medical use. Full article

The lunar surface soil (regolith) represents a potential substrate for crop cultivation in future extraterrestrial bases. However, the absence of indigenous microbial activity severely limits nutrient availability in lunar soil. In this study, the effects of three commercial microbial fertilizers on improving simulated lunar soil and promoting lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) growth were experimentally evaluated. The results showed that microbial fertilizers significantly increased the contents of available nutrients (N, P, and K) and organic matter in simulated lunar soil, thereby enhancing lettuce growth and biomass accumulation. Compared with the treatment without adding microbial fertilizer application (CK), the aboveground and belowground fresh weights of lettuce increased by up to 91.61% and 89.08%, respectively, under the microbial fertilizer MLQ treatment. In addition, microbial fertilizer treatment increased nutrient accumulation and photosynthetic pigment contents in lettuce, alleviated oxidative stress by improving antioxidant system performance, and consequently enhanced lettuce quality. High-throughput sequencing analysis further revealed that the dominant bacterial genera under these conditions were Bacillus, Glutamicibacter, Acetobacter, Enterococcus, and Microbacterium, while the dominant fungal genera included Saccharomyces, Pichia, and Trigonopsis. These findings provide theoretical support for the development of functional microbial fertilizers tailored for simulating lunar soil. Full article

Current school level practices and policies reproduce and reify carceral logics in schools through the disproportionate exclusion, removal, policing, and surveillance of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students from low-income backgrounds. Given the link between school-based discipline and youth incarceration, we sought to understand how young people experience and respond to inequitable discipline practices in educational settings. In this two-part study, we conceptually explore the mechanisms by which schools function as an extension of the carceral system through inequitable disciplinary practices and seek to empirically understand how students perceive and experience school-level carceral logics and the processes that lead students into the juvenile legal system. Study 1 consisted of three focus groups (N = 24) with high school students from historically marginalized backgrounds and explored youth perceptions of and experiences with discipline. Study 2 consisted of six focus groups (N = 28) with community college students who were incarcerated as youth, to understand their trajectories and educational experiences before, during, and following their incarceration. Taken together, the studies illuminate the intersection of schools and prisons as complex systems that historically marginalized students must navigate to access their education, leveraging skills and collective resilience to do so. Full article

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype F is one of the most genetically divergent and evolutionarily ancient HBV lineages and predominantly circulates in indigenous and admixed populations of the Americas. Here, we performed a comprehensive evolutionary and inferred functional characterization of the HBV genotype F via the largest curated dataset of complete genomes. Phylogenomic reconstruction, recombination screening, and phylogenetic network analyses were integrated with codon-based selective pressure inference, surface protein posttranslational modification profiling, mutational analysis of antigenic regions, and reverse transcriptase (RT) drug resistance assessment. The HBV-F subgenotype exhibited a well-resolved phylogenetic structure and limited intragenotypic recombination, while intergenotypic recombination contributed substantially to reticulate evolutionary signals. Selective pressure analyses revealed strong purifying selection in replication-associated domains of the polymerase, in contrast to episodic adaptive evolution in surface-exposed and regulatory proteins, particularly the X protein. N-glycosylation sites in large surface proteins are highly conserved. Some mutations in the major hydrophilic region (MHR) were significantly detected, whereas RT drug resistance mutations were rare and followed canonical lamivudine-associated pathways. Collectively, these findings highlight the balance between deep evolutionary conservation and localized adaptive flexibility in shaping the HBV genotype F and provide a genotype-specific framework for interpreting viral fitness, immune interactions, and antiviral resistance. Full article

Crete’s rich heritage of indigenous wine grapes remains underexplored in terms of chemical composition, with many cultivars yet to be fully characterized. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the phenolic profile of 67 monovarietal Cretan wines produced by 10 wineries (42 white, 25 red) from 12 varieties—eight white (Assyrtiko, Dafni, Malvazia, Melissaki, Moschato Spinas, Plito, Vidiano, and Vilana) and four red (Kotsifali, Liatiko, Mandilaria, and Romeiko). A targeted LC–QTOF–MS workflow covering 45 phenolic compounds (flavonoids and non-flavonoids) was applied. Varietal differences were assessed using heteroscedasticity-robust univariate statistics (Welch’s ANOVA with Games–Howell post hoc comparisons and effect-size estimation) and explored by multivariate analyses (PCA and HCA); cross-validated PLS-DA was used for descriptive classification, and MFA integrated the targeted phenolic matrix with classical indices (e.g., total phenolics, tannins, and color metrics). Red wines exhibited stronger variety-linked phenolic structuring than white wines, whereas white-wine differentiation was driven by a limited subset of marker phenolics. Given the central role of phenolic composition in overall wine quality, this study provides the first detailed phenolic characterization of 12 key indigenous Cretan grape varieties. Full article