Search Results (663)

Background/Objectives: The global health landscape is currently confronted with dual challenges from both infectious diseases and chronic conditions. Medical–preventive integration has emerged as a pivotal strategy to address these issues, aiming to create a comprehensive, closed-loop framework that spans disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and healthcare, ultimately improving population health outcomes. In the Chinese context, existing policies remain fragmented, scattered across various healthcare-related regulations, and lack systematic and comprehensive analysis. This policy fragmentation may impede the creation of synergistic effects essential for the effective implementation of integrated healthcare strategies. Methods: This study adopted a mixed-methods approach to analyze 85 national policies: a three-stage coding process identified 1088 policy nodes, and a three-dimensional framework (policy instruments (X) × full-cycle health service (Y) × integration stages (Z)) was applied to uncover systemic imbalances. Social network analysis and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling were utilized to map interagency collaboration patterns and thematic shifts, which were visualized using Gephi and Sankey. Results: The analysis revealed that policy instruments are predominantly supply-side (45.04%) and environmental-side (40.35%), with demand-side instruments (14.61%) being notably underutilized, particularly in health financing. Rehabilitation services, representing just 8.27% of the policy focus, were identified as a significant gap in the comprehensive health service cycle. While 44.58% of the instruments facilitated collaboration of medical and preventive services, integration of medical–preventive management stagnated at 25.28%, reflecting institutional inertia that impedes the redistribution of cross-sector resources. Agency collaboration evolved from a siloed approach (2015–2018) to a networked structure (2019–2021) and transitioned to centralized governance post-2022. Thematic shifts in policy discourse moved from a “Healthy China” focus toward pandemic-driven disease surveillance, culminating in the recent development of smart health ecosystems. Conclusions: China’s policies for medical–preventive integration demonstrate notable structural imbalances, particularly in the economic instruments related to health financing and the private-sector participation in healthcare. These imbalances may impede the effective allocation of healthcare resources and hinder the seamless transition toward integrated care. Future policy efforts should focus on optimizing the structure of policy instruments, addressing gaps in the full lifecycle of health services, advancing integration reforms, and promoting the transformation of the healthcare system through enhanced collaborative governance among key stakeholders. Full article

Current research directed toward exploring the complexities of experiences within video gaming culture often comprises male-majority yet mixed-gender samples. Although valuable, these findings do not provide a male-representative overview of male gamers and risk diluting male gamer experiences as universal to all gamers, losing valuable gendered perspectives. In our study, we aimed to bridge this research gap by addressing: “What are the experiences of male gamers in online video gaming environments?” Through a qualitative, exploratory approach, underpinned by social constructionist epistemology, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 Australian adult male-identifying people who self-identified as online gamers (aged 18–36 years). Interviews were analysed through Reflexive Thematic Analysis, and findings present an overview of the complex social dynamics that shape male gamer experiences. Participants discussed experiences with toxicity online and frequently attributed problematic behaviour to characteristics they described as unrepresentative of male gamers broadly. They further described the sophisticated nature of online socialisation regarding the depth of bonds formed through gaming, which, at times, constitute larger online communities. These were navigated through a multitude of social criteria, revealing the underlying sociological structures that maintain dynamics within gaming environments. As such, broader concerns for the sociocultural status of men arose, particularly the problematisation of masculinity, which participants countered through identity management strategies aimed at restoring their reputation. Our findings highlight implications surrounding the importance of accounting for gendered meaning within gaming-based academic discourse and encourage public discourse surrounding problematic behaviour online to be redirected toward systems-level approaches. Full article

With the ratification of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the safeguarding of intangible cultural practices has been established as a normatively binding framework of international cultural policy. This development has placed the field at the core of contemporary discourses on cultural diversity, sustainable development, and identity revitalization. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the processes of institutionalizing the protection of intangible heritage unfold under complex conditions of asymmetric constitutional division of competences, normative fragmentation, and functional dispersion of responsibilities, resulting in the absence of a coherent and coordinated cultural policy system. The paper focuses on assessing the potential of integrated and strategically structured management of intangible cultural assets to generate synergistic effects between cultural valorization, local sustainability, and transnational recognition. Methodologically, this study applies a critical, comparative-analytical interpretation of the institutional and legal framework of BiH, with special reference to the position of intangible cultural heritage within strategic policy documents. The analysis of the national register, including elements inscribed on the UNESCO lists, underscores the urgent need for intersectoral and transdisciplinary mechanisms to safeguard and valorize cultural heritage as instruments of cultural policy aimed at strengthening collective identity, fostering cultural tourism, and positioning BiH within the global cultural landscape. Full article

In this article, we address the issue of the sometimes indeterminate grammatical and functional status of vocatives and vocative-like NPs by proposing a prototype-based approach to their classification. We then explore the socio-pragmatic functions of these vocative types, adopting a variationist perspective that considers both macro- and micro-social factors to determine when the different types of vocatives occur and how they contribute to managing interpersonal relationships. This exploratory analysis is based on data from an online questionnaire featuring Discourse Completion Tasks of over 3000 participants in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The findings show that different vocative types fulfill distinct socio-pragmatic functions, ranging from signaling positive politeness to heightening the face-threatening potential of an utterance, depending on the communicative task performed. In addition, their use varies between participants, based on the speakers’ regional background, gender, age, or personality traits. Full article

This study examines whether corporate sustainability discourse generates uniformly positive employee reactions or whether its effects are bounded by credibility dynamics. Drawing on signaling theory and legitimacy perspectives, we propose that sustainability communication exhibits a non-linear relationship with employee evaluations. Specifically, we argue that sustainability intensity initially enhances employee evaluations but produces diminishing and eventually negative returns beyond a credibility threshold. Furthermore, we theorize that greenwashing signals reshape this non-linear relationship by altering its curvature and shifting the turning point to lower levels of sustainability intensity. Using a longitudinal firm–year panel design, we test these arguments with weighted fixed-effects models and turning-point estimations. The results reveal a significant inverted-U relationship between sustainability discourse intensity and employee evaluations. Importantly, greenwashing signals do not independently reduce evaluations; instead, they amplify the negative curvature of the relationship and significantly lower the credibility threshold at which evaluative backlash emerges. These findings extend sustainability and management research by demonstrating that sustainability communication is not a uniformly beneficial strategic tool. Rather, its effectiveness depends on perceived credibility and contextual trust conditions. By introducing the notion of a shifting credibility threshold, this study provides a more nuanced understanding of how sustainability discourse influences internal stakeholder evaluations. Full article

The concentration of tourist flows along short urban links caused by cruise stops in medium-sized Mediterranean ports exacerbates traffic and localized environmental externalities. This study evaluates the willingness to pay (WTP) of cruise passengers for an electric tram that would connect the Gaženica Port with Zadar’s historic center, an intervention designed to cut travel time and reduce on-street congestion and emissions. Over the course of two seasons, a two-wave, two-site, in-person survey was conducted at the port and in the city center. The instrument adopts a double-bounded dichotomous choice (DBDC) contingent valuation design with randomized starting bids that were calibrated using a pre-test that benchmarked prevailing transport pricing. Primary WTP estimates are obtained from a binary choice model with socio-demographic and environmental covariates; whereby inference relies on cluster-robust errors. Robustness is assessed through three complementary checks that do not require additional data: (i) a bivariate specification to account for within-respondent correlation between first and follow-up bids; (ii) Turnbull nonparametric bounds for the interval-censored WTP distribution; and (iii) starting-point tests using split-sample estimation and bid-set indicators. A spike adjustment based on “no–no at the lowest bid” responses is explored where appropriate. Beyond its methodological contribution, this research advances the sustainable tourism development discourse by quantifying visitors’ financial support for low-emission urban mobility infrastructure that mitigates environmental stresses while preserving residential life quality. The results integrate cruise tourist management with the more general goals of resilient and sustainable urban destinations by offering a decision-ready value input for port-city mobility planning in historic Mediterranean centers. Full article

Background: Given the central role of writing and typing in contemporary communication, integrating writing assessments into clinical practice is crucial for improving the diagnosis and management of primary progressive aphasia (PPA). This scoping review summarizes evidence on writing abilities in PPA, examining task types, their strengths and limitations, the linguistic features of stimuli, and the influence of language differences. Methods: A literature search was conducted using the Google Scholar and PubMed databases. We included papers published in peer-reviewed journals and written in English that present data from at least one PPA subject and report a quantitative score relative to a writing task. Fifty-one studies were included (forty-seven behavioral; four with neuroimaging). Results: Overall, the literature is fragmented, with marked variability in task design and the control of psycholinguistic variables. Writing to dictation is the most frequently used task but fails to capture the full spectrum of writing impairments, whereas tasks tapping lexico-semantic, morpho-syntactic, and discourse-level abilities are rarely employed. At the syndromic description level, svPPA typically shows surface dysgraphia, nfvPPA presents phonological dysgraphia and agrammatic writing, and lvPPA displays mixed error profiles. Neuroimaging findings are highly heterogeneous. Conclusions: The review underscores the need for systematic, linguistically grounded approaches to writing assessments in PPA to enhance diagnostic precision and cross-linguistic comparability. Full article

Rural heritage villages in China face compounding pressures from heritagisation policies, tourism marketisation, and digital platform logics, which together threaten the cultural integrity of lineage-based communities. While existing scholarship has shifted from treating authenticity as a fixed property to viewing it as a negotiated construct, a critical gap persists: the literature does not explain how local actors operationally manage the simultaneous demands of external governance compliance and internal cultural continuity. Drawing on multi-sited ethnography conducted across ritual spaces, tourism settings, and digital platforms in Huizhou lineage villages (March–August 2025)—including over 30 h of in-depth interviews with 18 cultural practitioners and two years of online community ethnography (2023–2025) within Huizhou traditional village cultural liaison groups—this study examines the micro-level strategies through which communities respond to Authorized Heritage Discourse (AHD). The study introduces the concept of Versioned Governance: a community-enacted mechanism through which cultural authenticity is strategically differentiated into ritual, performative, and pedagogical versions. Through spatial partitioning, temporal staggering, and linguistic encoding, lineage groups create cultural buffer zones that mediate between sacred practice and public display without compromising ethical coherence. This framework reframes authenticity not as an essential property nor as mere negotiated perception, but as a processual and political achievement—continuously produced through the interplay of structural discipline and local agency. The findings contribute to critical heritage studies and offer practical implications for cultural land-use and heritage governance policy in non-Western rural contexts. Full article

This study investigates whether fluctuations in the real exchange rate give rise to symmetric or asymmetric J-curve effects in manufacturing trade between Türkiye and Germany, thereby positioning the analysis within and contributing to the broader scholarly discourse on exchange rate–trade balance dynamics. Using monthly data for the period 2013M01–2025M07, the paper first estimates a linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model for the bilateral manufacturing trade balance and subsequently extends the framework to a nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) specification, which explicitly incorporates symmetry and asymmetry by decomposing real exchange rate changes into positive (depreciation) and negative (appreciation) partial sums. The linear ARDL results provide no evidence of a conventional J-curve and suggest that the aggregate impact of the real exchange rate is weak and often statistically insignificant. In contrast, the NARDL estimates uncover pronounced long-run and cumulative short-run asymmetries: real depreciations of the Turkish lira are associated with a persistent improvement in the bilateral manufacturing trade balance, whereas appreciations exert weak and statistically insignificant effects, a finding that remains robust when a real effective exchange rate measure is employed. Overall, the evidence indicates that Türkiye–Germany manufacturing trade does not conform to the standard J-curve pattern. These findings suggest that trade policy should adopt an asymmetric stance toward exchange rate movements: since depreciations yield persistent trade balance improvements while appreciations produce negligible effects, policies designed to support export competitiveness should prioritize the management of depreciation episodes rather than assuming symmetric adjustment dynamics. Full article

This study critically engages the ongoing national conversation and policy discourse on land expropriation without compensation in South Africa, offering both analytical insight and a principled position. It presents a qualitative, normative-analytical inquiry grounded primarily in critical documentary analysis of legislation, jurisprudence, and land reform scholarship. The study situates the contemporary debate within South Africa’s broader historical and structural context, where patterns of land dispossession continue to shape persistent spatial inequality and exclusion. The analysis proceeds from the premise that meaningful urban spatial transformation cannot be realised without addressing the structural constraints embedded within existing land governance and spatial planning systems. In this regard, debates around land expropriation are not simply questions of property law or economic policy but are fundamentally connected to broader concerns of spatial justice, economic inclusion, and social equity. These concerns are particularly salient when considering emerging imaginaries of African urban futures, including the notion of the Pan-African City—an urban formation envisioned as spatially integrated, socially inclusive, and reflective of shared continental aspirations for equitable development. The central argument advanced in this study is that unless South Africa gives serious and programmatic attention to land expropriation—moving beyond token or partial policy measures—the structural conditions necessary for such inclusive urban futures will remain unattainable. In this sense, any vision of a Pan-African City within South Africa’s borders risks remaining short-lived, if not altogether specious. To fully engage this debate, the paper unpacks and interrelates the concepts of land expropriation, compensation, expropriation without compensation, economic inclusivity, social equity, spatial justice, and the Pan-African City. These concepts cannot be adequately understood independent of the distinctly South African context—a context shaped by a history of racialised dispossession, deeply entrenched spatial inequalities, and the limitations of both first-generation (restitution, redistribution, tenure reform) and second-generation (e.g., the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act) land reform initiatives. The point advanced is unequivocal: without resolving the land question, sustainable housing and human settlement solutions in South Africa will not materialise. Anything less risks entrenching a democratic façade atop an unresolved colonial, segregationist, and apartheid foundation. Full article

Local and Indigenous knowledge (LIK) systems are recognised as a pertinent component of effective and equitable water governance, especially for building resilient, sustainable, and climate-resilient water management systems; however, their incorporation into water governance systems and processes remains limited, symbolic, and hindered by technocratic, legal, and power barriers. This study, through a systematic overview of existing work from Africa, aims to explore critically the role and contribution of LIK systems in water governance and climate adaptation, with the goal of establishing that LIK systems should be understood and operationalised as a water governance system, not as a supplementary knowledge system. Through systematic thematic analysis, four recurring themes are identified: (i) rhetorical recognition of LIK without substantive institutionalisation; (ii) evidence of contributions to local-scale climate adaptation, ecosystem management, and water resource allocation; (iii) inherent challenges of legal marginalisation, epistemic dominance, and power asymmetry; and (iv) transformative limitations of participatory or co-management frameworks that maintain state-led authority. SWOT analysis reveals LIK’s strengths in adaptive innovation, knowledge coproduction, and governance legitimacy, with potential threats of marginalisation, institutional fragmentation, and dominance by technocratic discourses. The results show that the failure of integration is governance-driven rather than knowledge-driven, emphasising the importance of institutional recognition, legal pluralism, vertical integration, and the sharing of power. Partnership with LIK as an equal in governance helps create policy environments that are inclusive, flexible, and socially legitimate. This approach to integration directly contributes to the achievement of SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). This review establishes a conceptual, empirical, and practical basis for incorporating LIK into water governance, promoting adaptive, equitable, and resilient water resource management in a climate of uncertainty and complexity. Additionally, the review argues that climate-resilient water governance requires institutional recognition of legal pluralism, vertically integrated decision-making structures, and explicit power-sharing arrangements that treat LIK as coequal governance rather than consultative input. By reframing LIK integration as a question of authority and institutional design, this review contributes to debates on epistemic justice and adaptive water governance under climate change. While grounded in African case studies, the findings contribute to broader global debates on epistemic pluralism and inclusive water governance. Full article

Amid the prevailing trend of “pan-entertainment” in cyberspace, adults increasingly interpret children’s lives through utilitarian, adult-centric, and entertainment-focused perspectives, leading to the alienation of children’s online images. This study examines child influencer accounts on Douyin—typically managed by parents—and conducts content and discourse analysis on them. Drawing on critical theories by Douglas Kellner, we employed Scrapy and NVivo to analyze 30 popular children’s videos and 15,000 user comments posted beneath them. The analysis identifies five key characteristics in the construction of such images: spectacular visual mechanisms, younger-age production trends, covert commercial penetration, homogenized spectacle types, and adult-centric implicit influence. The study underscores the urgency of strengthening protective mechanisms to counteract platform capitalism’s intrusion into childhood and to uphold children’s digital privacy and agency. Full article

Corporate management has recently shifted from a traditional shareholder-centric approach to sustainability-oriented strategic management, with ESG factors becoming central to corporate strategy. In this study, we identified strategic implications for enhancing corporate sustainability amid these changes. Specifically, we examined the structural context in which voluntary international standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), interact with the rising importance of environmental issues, diverse stakeholders, and intensified corporate competition, leading to a more in-depth discourse on corporate sustainability management. We analyzed corporate sustainability management reports of 102 companies across five industries in South Korea, applying risk management techniques and calculating relative importance indicators for key issues. The analysis revealed that “Response to the Threat of Climate Change” was the top priority across many industries and was closely linked to other issues such as sustainable resource use, customer safety, and supplier management, depending on industry characteristics. Several issues were identified as highly important despite being infrequently mentioned, suggesting they could become key future concerns. Based on our findings, we recommend that companies develop scenario-based, industry-specific strategies to address the threat of climate change, with a focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. For governments and regulators, these findings are expected to have significant implications for enhancing corporate capacity to respond to Net Zero goals and improve climate change resilience across industries. Full article

Second language (L2) writing, particularly in demanding areas like argumentative discourse, requires learners to effectively manage interpersonal resources such as stance and modality. Despite the centrality of stance in academic literacy, its development in L2 Hebrew writing remains largely underexplored. This study addresses this gap by examining how Arabic-speaking learners of Hebrew realize epistemic, deontic, and evaluative stance in their interlanguage writing. Using a qualitative, concept-oriented, function-to-form analytical approach, the analysis examined 92 authentic argumentative essays (11,572 words) produced by L1 Arabic speakers under standardized examination conditions and systematically classified each modal expression into one of three empirically derived interlanguage developmental levels. The findings reveal a clear and consistent developmental progression across all three modal domains. Developmental patterns are inferred from interlanguage variation across proficiency levels rather than tracked longitudinally. Basic-level expressions relied primarily on high-frequency, spoken-like vocabulary and explicit personal opinion markers. Intermediate-level expressions displayed greater lexical variety and a shift toward a more abstract stance but remained marked by morphosyntactic instability and L1 influence, often producing hybrid or non-target-like constructions. Advanced writers effectively deployed idiomatic, low-frequency, and structurally more complex modal constructions aligned with conventions of Hebrew academic writing. Full article

Australian regional communities are actively seeking development pathways that generate local economic value while maintaining environmental and cultural integrity. In this context, GeoRegions have emerged in Australia as a community-led approach for recognising and interpreting geoheritage and associated abiotic–biotic–cultural (ABC) values through geotourism and geoeducation. The GeoRegion concept remains intentionally operationally flexible, but for regional communities encountering a myriad of barriers to sustainable geotourism implementation, any uncertainty for proponents about what constitutes an implementable GeoRegion and what resources and governance arrangements are required for credible and sustained delivery requires resolution. This study developed a stakeholder-informed conceptual model to clarify the practical ‘building blocks’ of GeoRegion establishment and the conditions under which GeoRegions can contribute to sustainability-oriented regional development. Using a design thinking framing and semi-structured interviews with thirteen expert participants, we used semantic discourse analysis to identify the factors perceived as essential to GeoRegion viability and legitimacy. We found that participants expected GeoRegions to be geologically centred, but their perceived value and long-term durability depend on (i) genuine community support and locally legitimate narratives (including Indigenous knowledge where appropriate), (ii) capable champions or coordinating groups, (iii) sustained resourcing for interpretation and visitor readiness, and (iv) a facilitative and not prescriptive role for government. Participants emphasised that GeoRegions should never be constrained by land tenure but cautioned that competing land uses, access logistics and uneven capacity across regions were highly influential in the delineation of feasible boundaries and management intensity. Our GeoRegion model differentiates core inputs (community mandate, knowledge co-production, geoheritage significance, human capacity and funding) from expected outputs (interpretive materials, geoeducation, geotourism, economic development, conservation outcomes and strengthened place identity), and we identify feedback that can either reinforce or erode sustainability outcomes over time. We argue that GeoRegions can provide a low-risk, scalable mechanism for geoconservation-informed regional development, particularly where formal protected-area tools or geopark ambitions are politically or economically constrained, provided that supporting governance and resourcing are treated as essential design requirements. Full article