Search Results (114)

Decision management is the systems engineering life cycle process for making program/system decisions. The purpose of the decision management process is: “…to provide a structured, analytical framework for objectively identifying, characterizing and evaluating a set of alternatives for a decision at any point in the life cycle and select the most beneficial course of action”. Systems engineers and systems analysts need to inform decisions in a digital engineering environment. This paper describes a Decision Analysis Data Model (DADM) developed in model-based systems engineering software to provide the process, methods, models, and data to support decision management. DADM can support digital engineering for waterfall, spiral, and agile development processes. This paper describes the decision management processes and provides the definition of the data elements. DADM is based on ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, the INCOSE SE Handbook, the SE Body of Knowledge, the Data Management Body of Knowledge, systems engineering textbooks, and journal articles. The DADM was developed to establish a decision management process and data definitions that organizations and programs can tailor for their system life cycles and processes. The DADM can also be used to assess organizational processes and decision quality. Full article

The growing prevalence of AI chatbots in everyday life has prompted educators to explore their potential applications in promoting student success, including support for classroom engagement and communication. This exploratory study emerged from semester-long observations of class participation apprehensions in an introductory educational psychology course, examining how chatbots might scaffold students toward active and independent classroom contribution. Four students experiencing situational participation anxiety voluntarily participated in a pilot intervention using AI chatbots as virtual peer partners. Following comprehensive training in AI use and prompt design given to the entire class, participants employed systematic consultation frameworks for managing classroom discourse trepidations. Data collection involved regular instructor meetings documenting student experiences, challenges, and developmental trajectories through qualitative analysis emphasizing contextual interpretation. While students reported general satisfaction with chatbot integration, implementation revealed three critical complexities: temporal misalignment between AI consultation and real-time discussion dynamics; feedback inflation creating disconnects between AI reassurance and classroom reception; and unintended progression from supportive scaffolding toward technological dependency. Individual outcomes varied, with some students developing independence while others increased reliance on external validation. AI-assisted participation interventions demonstrate both promise and limitations, requiring careful consideration of classroom dynamics. Effective implementation necessitates rehearsal-based rather than validation-focused applications, emphasizing human mentorship and community-centered approaches that preserve educational autonomy while leveraging technological scaffolding strategically. Full article

This article carries out an interdisciplinary analysis of five MOOC courses developed by the University of Valladolid and offered on higher education platforms between 2020 and 2024. This research is based on the study of the lexical categories used by the informants participating in these courses, establishing a correlation with the theoretical and practical debates surrounding the definition of heritage and the frameworks of contemporary heritage education. Through a metalinguistic approach, the semantic limits of the emerging lexical categories are examined, paying attention to their ambiguity, polysemy and contexts of use, both from a formal linguistic perspective and from a hermeneutic approach. The analysis is based on natural language processing tools, complemented by qualitative techniques from applied linguistics and cultural studies. This dual approach, both scientific–statistical and humanistically nuanced, allows us to identify recurrent discursive patterns, as well as significant variations in the conceptualization of heritage according to the socio-cultural and geographical profiles of the participants. The results of the linguistic analysis are contrasted with the thematic lines investigated by our research group, focusing on cultural policy, legacy policies, narratives linked to the culture of depopulation, disputed scientific paradigms, and specific lexical categories in the Latin American context. In this sense, the article takes a critical look at discursive production in massive online learning environments, positioning language as a key indicator of the processes of cultural resignification and the construction of legacy knowledge in the Ibero-American context. The findings of my scientific article underscore the pressing need for a multiform liberation of the traditionally constrained concept of heritage, which has long been framed within rigid institutional, legal, and disciplinary boundaries. This normative framework, often centered on materiality, monumentalism, and expert-driven narratives, limits the full potential of heritage as a relational and socially embedded construct. My research reveals that diverse social agents—ranging from educators and local communities to cultural mediators and digital users—demand a more flexible, inclusive, and participatory understanding of heritage. This shift calls for redefining legacy not as a static legacy to be preserved but as a dynamic bond, deeply rooted in affective, symbolic, and intersubjective dimensions. The concept of “heritage as bond”, as developed in contemporary critical theory, provides a robust framework for this reconceptualization. Furthermore, the article highlights the need for a new vehiculation of access—one that expands heritage experience and appropriation beyond elite circles and institutionalized contexts into broader social ecosystems such as education, digital platforms, civil society, and everyday life. This approach promotes legacy democratization, fostering horizontal engagement and collective meaning-making. Ultimately, the findings advocate for a paradigm shift toward an open, polyphonic, and affective heritage model, capable of responding to contemporary socio-cultural complexities. Full article

Few design methods exist that provide clearly structured, visually intuitive, and easily monitored scaffolding for navigating the considerable complexity of biomimetic processes. To this end, we present a holistic biomimicry process framework informed by design abstraction models that clarifies core skills involved and how they combine to form essential practices, such as biology-to-design and challenge-to-biology. The structure–function and conditions-conducive-to-life perspectives are facilitated, ensuring support for sustainability considerations. We pair this framework with two process tools that make biomimicry design moves explicit for learners, educators, and practitioners. We share examples of the use of these tools from an upper-level undergraduate engineering course in biomimicry. Our observations indicate that the framework and tools support process acquisition, design iteration, knowledge transfer, and sustainability integration in biomimicry education and practice by enabling common design behaviors such as variation, iteration, debugging, and reflection. Full article

Background/Objectives: Women of color remain at risk of new HIV diagnoses. This study applied an intersectional framework to explore the lived experiences of women of color aged 50 and older who are living and aging with HIV. Methods: The researcher conducted a secondary analysis of data from a study involving respondents aged 50 years or older living with HIV. The mean age of the female participants (N = 12) was 57.42 (SD = 5.18, range = 47–65). Ecological Systems Theory was used to operationalize intersectionality, considering participants’ multiple identities and social locations. Results: Participants described histories of role enactment and struggles as they faced structural, community, and interpersonal violence, anticipatory loss, and shame. Their narratives highlighted how layered oppressions shaped their experiences across the life course. Conclusions: Findings underscore the importance of using intersectional theoretical frameworks to examine the intersecting systems of oppression affecting older women of color living with HIV. The study recommends trauma-informed assessments and interventions, as well as culturally informed clinician training rooted in evidence-based practices. Full article

Background: Maternal vaccination is a critical primary preventive approach and an integral part of life-course immunization strategy, influencing the infection-associated morbidity and mortality in pregnant women, foetuses, and young infants. Despite clear guidelines for the administration of vaccines against tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis (Tdap), influenza, and COVID-19 during pregnancy, maternal vaccination rates remain suboptimal in Ireland as per the National Immunisation Office of the Health Service Executive (HSE). Aim: This review explores the prevailing status, uptake factors, and maternal immunization-specific vaccine hesitancy in Ireland. Method: A scoping review was conducted, searching nine electronic databases, including the Irish health research repository Lenus. The search strategy utilised a Population–Concept–Context framework (pregnant women—vaccine uptake/hesitancy—Ireland). Key factors identified and categorised according to the 5A framework: access, affordability, awareness, acceptance, and activation. Results: Searches yielded 2457 articles, and 12 eligible studies were included for review. Influencing factors were identified in each of the 5A dimensions, with the majority relating to acceptance and awareness. Positively associated factors included healthcare provider (HCP) recommendation and knowledge of vaccine safety. Potential antenatal barriers were maternal lack of knowledge of vaccine-preventable illness severity, infection risks, and vaccine safety concerns. A pregnant woman’s primary motivation for antenatal immunization was protection of her infant; however, the reluctance of HCPs to prescribe all recommended antenatal vaccines, inadequate immunization-specific discussion during antenatal consultations, and suboptimal knowledge of pregnancy-specific vaccine safety hampered potential positive influences. The Irish national immunization policy was a facilitator of affordability. Activation can be achieved through public health awareness campaigns and interdisciplinary promotion of maternal vaccination uptake. Conclusions: Maternal vaccination uptake in Ireland remains suboptimal, and a coordinated, targeted approach updating HCP recommendations, enhancing maternal awareness, and highlighting vaccine safety in pregnancy would be required to meet the life-course immunization goals recommended by WHO. By adopting a life-course immunization approach for healthy living, with maternal vaccination as the pivotal central point, vaccination programmes could close immunity gaps at various life stages. Full article

Decarbonizing production activities is a critical task in the transition towards carbon neutrality. Traditional carbon footprint accounting tools, such as life-cycle assessment (LCA) and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, primarily quantify direct and indirect emissions but offer limited guidance on actionable reduction strategies. To address this gap, this study proposes a comprehensive life-cycle carbon footprint optimization framework that integrates LCA with a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model. The framework, while applicable to various production contexts, is validated using a university campus as a case study. In 2023, the evaluated university’s net carbon emissions totaled approximately 24,175.07 t CO₂-eq. Based on gross emissions (28,306.43 t CO₂-eq) before offsetting, electricity accounted for 66.09%, buildings for 15.55%, fossil fuels for 8.67%, and waste treatment for 8.46%. Seasonal analysis revealed that June and December exhibited the highest energy consumption, with emissions exceeding the monthly average by 19.4% and 48.6%, respectively, due to energy-intensive air conditioning demand. Teaching activities emerged as a primary contributor, with baseline emissions estimated at 5485.24 t CO₂-eq. Optimization strategies targeting course scheduling yielded substantial reductions: photovoltaic-based scheduling reduced electricity emissions by 7.00%, seasonal load shifting achieved a 26.92% reduction, and combining both strategies resulted in the highest reduction, at 45.95%. These results demonstrate that aligning academic schedules with photovoltaic generation and seasonal energy demand can significantly enhance emission reduction outcomes. The proposed framework provides a scalable and transferable approach for integrating time-based and capacity-based carbon optimization strategies across broader operational systems beyond the education sector. Full article

Numerous research studies have documented the significant influence of key types of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) on adult health and wellbeing, even in the presence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Recent studies reveal that almost 87% of justice-impacted youth reported at least one ACE. Connecting youth to PCEs after trauma has occurred has been shown to disrupt the poor health trajectory associated with ACEs. Creating juvenile justice systems that prioritize equitable access to PCEs has the potential to change the life course of system-impacted youth. The HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) framework, a research-based, community-driven approach to improving access to the key types of PCEs youth need to thrive, presents a potentially powerful strategy for juvenile justice systems to transform care for system-impacted youth. This manuscript describes this proposed approach. Full article

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disease that has a multidimensional impact on a person’s life, with symptoms associated with a significant loss of autonomy. Specialized palliative care (PC) should be provided early and throughout the course of the disease. Indeed, physiotherapists should be understood as integral members of the multidisciplinary team in PC, in the care and improvement of the quality of life of these people. This study aimed to describe the lived experience of physiotherapists in the context of intervention in people with advanced ALS and their families. Descriptive phenomenology was employed as a framework for conducting semi-structured interviews to reveal experiences. Sixteen physiotherapists who performed interventions on at least one person with advanced ALS in the last 2 years were included in the study. The study involved conducting semi-structured individual interviews, through the Zoom^® videoconferencing platform (version 6.4.3). Data were analyzed according to Giorgi’s five-stage approach and managed using webQDA software (Version 3.0, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal). The COREQ checklist was applied in the study. Participants were mostly female (n = 12) and aged between 26 and 55 years (M = 36.81; SD = 6.75). Four constituents were identified: (1) undulating course of a complex disease; (2) barriers to person-centered care; (3) enablers of person-centered care; (4) transition between curative and palliative care. The findings illustrate the multidimensional impact of the disease trajectory on the person and their family. This study highlights the need to invest in specialized training for physiotherapists, contributing to a person-centered PC practice with an impact on promoting comfort and quality of life. Full article

In western countries, the COVID-19 pandemic represented a unique scenario of a global threat of contagion of a life-threatening illness, as confirmed by the need for exceptional and never adopted measures represented by national lockdowns. This study aimed to investigate peritraumatic distress in the framework of the lockdown and to measure the impact on the course of depressive symptoms during the “first wave” of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. A sample of 131 subjects (52.7% females; mean age 47.0 ± 15.9 years), looking for a first or follow-up psychiatric visit at the outpatient psychiatric services of two Italian university hospitals, was recruited between 1 June 2020 and 30 July 2020 and assessed by the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) and the Peritraumatic Distress Inventory (PDI) at the time of enrolment in the study (T0). The HAM-D was administered again after 3 months (T1). Higher PDI scores significantly predicted the persistence or worsening of depressive symptoms. These results give further evidence of the possible interplay between peritraumatic distress and depressive symptoms in the framework of a global health threat such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Full article

Women’s reproductive decisions and life trajectories are shaped by an interplay of biological, social, and ecological factors. While Life History Theory (LHT) has traditionally been applied in biological sciences to examine reproductive trade-offs, its integration with Life Course Theory (LCT) and empowerment frameworks offers a novel approach to understanding how structural and environmental conditions shape women’s reproductive behaviours and household roles. This study applies Categorical Principal Component Analysis (CATPCA) to identify key profiles of women’s lives in two ecologically distinct rural communities in Timor-Leste—Ossu and Natarbora—and examines how these patterns relate to early life conditions. Building on a longitudinal study conducted in these communities, our findings reveal four distinct profiles: (1) Tech and Sanitation, linked to household labour-saving technology and higher education; (2) Traditional, reflecting large household size and livestock ownership; (3) Contraception, associated with fertility control, particularly among younger cohorts; and (4) High Fertility, characterised by more births, greater child mortality, and being born in high-altitude regions. By combining LHT, LCT, and the empowerment framework, this study analyses how reproductive strategies and household ecology intersect with structural inequalities. These findings offer key insights for policies aimed at improving women’s autonomy, access to resources, and reproductive health in rural Timor-Leste. Full article

Background: Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (CHR-P) is a psychopathological condition requiring early prevention, particularly in adolescence. Methods: We enrolled 151 patients to assess the potential of the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) in predicting the course of CHR-P and transitions to psychosis. Adolescents with DSM-5 Attenuated Psychotic Symptoms (APS) at baseline were compared with those diagnosed with Early-Onset Psychosis (EOP) and those with other conditions (non-APS). We also examined whether antipsychotics influenced patients’ performance in the R-PAS. Finally, we analyzed correlations between DSM-5 diagnoses at one-year follow-up and baseline R-PAS indexes. Results: APS and EOP patients exhibited similar R-PAS profiles, with APS showing greater impairments in specific Perception and Thinking Problem indexes. Antipsychotic use did not confound results. A distinct R-PAS profile emerged for individuals at risk of psychosis after one year, with the most significant alterations in the Self and Other Representation and the Stress and Distress domains. Conclusions: This study highlights the R-PAS as a valuable tool for early psychosis risk detection and prevention strategies. Targeted, person-centered interventions (i.e., psychotherapy, mindfulness, and relaxation techniques) are recommended to address vulnerabilities. Integrating psychological assessment into early intervention frameworks may enhance outcomes and improve patients and families’ quality of life. Full article

Earth is currently facing a multifaceted planetary emergency, primarily due to a lack of fundamental knowledge regarding critical global issues. This situation necessitates the integration of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations, which are to be achieved by 2030, into educational curricula. Such integration will ensure that future generations develop a comprehensive understanding of emerging threats and assume shared responsibility for sustaining the planet. In this context, language education serves as a foundational means of fostering global awareness. In this paper, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is adopted as a guide for pedagogical alignment and language development. Three course plans have been developed for A1, B1, and C1 proficiency levels to raise awareness of sustainability and enhance language competencies. Nature-related themes have been integrated into teaching Turkish as a foreign language using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) framework. Consequently, learners of Turkish as a foreign language engage with meaningful, real-life contexts that relate to the environmental and climate components of the SDGs. Based on this framework, this study aims to foster both linguistic and ecological literacy through the integration of sustainability themes into foreign language teaching. Full article

This article aims to illustrate the pivotal role that the environment plays in early child development (ECD), drawing upon data derived from the ethnographic research on children’s daily routines. Participant observation and in-depth interviews were conducted over the course of several fieldwork periods (2013–2018). The concept of “mutual raising” is employed to examine the daily interactions between middle-aged children and their domestic animals. To gain an insight into how children develop sophisticated and ecologically relevant skills to become autonomous and responsible for the care of others within the context of environmental interdependence, we present and analyze a cultural practice that is salient to the identity and way of life in rural communities of the Andean region in South America: becoming a shepherd. Considering the aforementioned findings, it can be posited that being able to care for others represents a significant developmental milestone. This discussion highlights the limitations of the dominant theoretical and disciplinary lens through which ECD is currently studied, those so-called W.E.I.R.D societies. Consequently, it is imperative to advocate for an integrative and transdisciplinary framework for ECD studies that incorporates anthropological evidence and the cultural experiences of children and families who have been historically marginalized by dominant ECD models. Full article

The processes of information exchange and the movement of material flows form a communication space that reflects the relationship of complex intersystem interactions in various spheres of our life within the framework of the concepts of information-theoretical theory. One of these concepts, reflecting the mutual influence between processes at a qualitative level, is the transfer of entropy. The direction and intensity of these flows reflect the main social and economic processes. As it is known, air transport is one of the most reliable and high-speed modes of transport, influencing the processes of socio-cultural interaction between different regions. This indirectly affects the development of industrial relations, the development of technology and intercultural exchange. New technologies in aviation improve the flight performance of airliners and reduce the costs of transporting passengers. The size and range of modern airliners are increasing, and ticket prices are being optimized. The processes of the liberalization of developing air transportation markets, the emergence of low-cost air carriers, open skies agreements, and the reduction in restrictions on the nomenclature of carriers and routes have led to the growth and diversity of air transport links. This article considers air transport as a complex system that takes into account the interconnectedness of the elements of the transportation system and the influence of some subsystems on others, which are not always obvious. The object of the study was the communication space formed on the basis of air transportation between regions of the world. To assess the dynamic properties of the world communication space, ICAO data for the period of 1970–2021 were used. The subject of the analysis was a time series reflecting the flows of passengers and cargo over the considered time horizon. The entropy transfer algorithm was used as an analysis tool. In the course of the research, the features of dynamic changes in the properties of the communication space were revealed. The analysis showed that the flows of entropy transfer between regions of the world change depending on political, economic, social, and technological factors. Examples of the application of the proposed approach are considered: an analysis of the cognitive model of the air transport flow structure, an analysis of the regional communication space, and an analysis of changes in the global communication field. The results of the analysis can be useful for assessing the development of the communication field of various regions, which will allow us to solve the problems of forming forecasts and effective scenarios for the development of transport flows at different hierarchical levels of economic management. Full article