Search Results (4,008)

The COVID-19 pandemic placed prolonged, multi-year demands on the systems supporting frontline workers in healthcare, public safety, and education. In response, approximately 150 licensed behavioral-health professionals and credentialed educators, trained in Psychological First Aid (PFA), built and staffed the Maine FrontLine WarmLine (MFLWL) as unpaid Volunteers from 21 March 2020 through 31 May 2021 and began fielding calls in April 2020, contributing approximately 33,000 h of service. Although the MFLWL fielded 100 calls in aggregate, engagement persisted and expanded into Community Outreach, reaching approximately 250 frontline workers. To understand that paradox, this narrative case study analyzed two waves of open-ended Volunteer surveys (n = 22; n = 20) using consensus-based thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: a specific COVID-19 frontline focus; personal and professional Calling; an intentionally cultivated Culture of self-care and relational support; and stakeholder relationships marked by experienced systemic betrayal and moral injury. Low call volume, rather than eroding engagement, appears to have activated Volunteers’ sense of Calling, converting frustrated readiness into new capability and new avenues of service. From these findings, we derive Emerging Volunteer Engagement (EVE), a values-and-process framework situated within Disaster Ecology that positions Volunteers as principal drivers of disaster response rather than interchangeable resources, with implications for Volunteer organization, support, and liability policy in future disasters. Full article

L. monocytogenes is a persistent pathogen in prepared salads that often survives through the viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state. To address this, a study evaluated a multi-hurdle sanitization strategy combining ultrasound (US), slightly acidic electrolyzed water (SAEW), and phenyllactic acid (PLA). This triple combined treatment exhibited a significant synergistic bactericidal effect, reducing L. monocytogenes counts below the detection limit and completely inhibiting the formation of VBNC cells. Mechanistic analysis revealed that the treatment triggered irreversible cell membrane damage, characterized by increased membrane permeability, intracellular protein leakage, and disrupted zeta potential. When applied to prepared salads, the combined method successfully extended their refrigerated shelf life (at 4 °C) to 9 days. Furthermore, this treatment effectively maintained the texture, color, and odor profile of the samples while preserving the activities of antioxidant enzymes. Overall, the US + SAEW + PLA strategy provides a highly efficient, non-thermal approach to ensuring both the microbial safety and sensory quality of prepared salads, offering a promising alternative technology for the food processing industry. Full article

Rabbit odontogenic abscesses are among the most challenging chronic infections encountered in exotic animal medicine because of their polymicrobial etiology, biofilm-associated persistence, and poor response to conventional antimicrobial therapy. Biofilm formation plays a central role in disease pathogenesis by promoting bacterial adhesion, extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) production, quorum sensing (bacterial cell-to-cell communication), metabolic heterogeneity, and the persister-cell formation (transiently antibiotic-tolerant bacterial subpopulations), collectively reducing antimicrobial susceptibility and contributing to treatment failure and recurrence. In addition to biofilm-mediated tolerance, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) further complicates disease management through mechanisms including horizontal gene transfer, efflux pump activation, enzymatic antibiotic degradation, reduced membrane permeability, and target modification. This review summarizes current knowledge on the microbiology, biofilm dynamics, and resistance mechanisms associated with rabbit odontogenic infections while examining recent advances in molecular diagnostics, including culture-independent sequencing technologies, metagenomics, and advanced imaging approaches. Current and emerging anti-biofilm strategies, such as local antimicrobial delivery systems, enzymatic biofilm disruption, quorum-sensing inhibitors, bacteriophage therapy, antimicrobial peptides, photodynamic therapy, and nanotechnology-based approaches, are critically discussed in the context of their potential application in rabbits. Comparative evidence from human endodontic infections and other veterinary biofilm-associated diseases highlights the translational relevance of rabbit odontogenic abscesses as a naturally occurring model for chronic polymicrobial infections. Finally, key research gaps are identified, emphasizing the need for standardized experimental models, integrated multi-omics analyses, combining genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data, longitudinal clinical investigations, and evidence-based antimicrobial stewardship. By integrating microbiology, biofilm biology, antimicrobial resistance, and One Health concepts, this review provides a comprehensive framework to support future research and improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of rabbit odontogenic infections. Full article

Paraprobiotics offer safer alternatives to live probiotics without requiring cell viability. Here, heat-inactivated bacterial preparations (paraprobiotics) were produced from Lacticaseibacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei 431 (L. casei 431) using thermal treatments (65–121 °C). No viable colonies were detected by conventional plating in any treatment, and flow cytometry indicated that more than 96% of cells were membrane-compromised or dead. The most favorable condition (65 °C, 60 min) was identified using a TOPSIS multi-criteria ranking approach integrating loss of culturability with antimicrobial activity against Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli with inactivation efficiency. This paraprobiotic and the corresponding probiotic were subjected to in vitro gastrointestinal digestion and colonic fermentation, followed by short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) and 16S rRNA-based gut microbiota analysis. The fecal inoculum was pooled from five healthy donors and used to run three replicate fermentation vessels per group. Both probiotic and paraprobiotic supplementation significantly increased acetate, butyrate, and total SCFA concentrations compared with the control, and propionate and valerate concentrations were also significantly higher in the paraprobiotic group than in the control. Both interventions increased Chao1 richness and Simpson diversity (p < 0.05), although Shannon diversity did not differ significantly, and induced significant shifts in beta diversity, alongside marked enrichment of butyrate- and SCFA-producing taxa such as Roseburia, Anaerostipes, and Akkermansia muciniphila. However, not all observed microbial changes were unequivocally beneficial; increases in Bilophila wadsworthia and Collinsella aerofaciens warrant cautious interpretation given their context-dependent associations with host health. Spearman correlation analysis identified positive associations between enriched taxa and SCFA concentrations, which should be interpreted as exploratory rather than evidence of causal metabolic cross-feeding. Under the conditions of this in vitro fermentation model, no statistically significant differences were detected between the viable and heat-inactivated preparations for most measured outcomes, indicating that thermal inactivation did not markedly diminish the capacity of L. casei 431 to influence gut microbial composition and short-chain fatty acid production. The multi-criteria selection strategy offers a practical approach for optimizing paraprobiotic production for functional food applications. Full article

The cultural emergence of artificial intelligence systems named after figures of divine wisdom—most notably the Hanson Robotics humanoid Sophia, granted Saudi citizenship in 2017—reveals a gap between the language of the wisdom traditions and that of contemporary technology. This paper treats that gap as the occasion for theological and ethical reflection on AI. Drawing on the Sophia tradition across its Hebrew, Hellenistic-Patristic, Gnostic, Russian Sophiological, perennialist, and Sufi articulations—especially Sergei Bulgakov’s account of Sophia as mediation between divine wisdom and created order—it develops a framework termed Consecrated Technology. The argument unfolds in three moves: (1) a structural critique showing how optimization-driven measurement systems erode ethical commitments even amid sincere intentions, illustrated through documented cases of algorithmic harm; (2) a category-error analysis demonstrating that “ethical AI” is incoherent unless ethics is reduced to optimization, since ethics requires interiority no model possesses—a diagnosis sharpened by examining the personal AI agent as a contemporary instance of the Gnostic Sophia–Demiurge structure; and (3) a constructive proposal that AI can be ethical only as a vessel for human agency honoring the inalienable dignity of every person. The constructive program articulates the Five Marks of Bezalel as a discriminating test for consecrated practice, proposes a Human Dignity Index for AI Systems (HDIAS) paralleling Sen’s Human Development Index, and outlines a multi-front operational program extending Sustainable AI Ethics with wisdom-centered criteria, illustrated through contrasting contemporary cases (Anthropic’s Mythos restraint and Google’s shifting commitments). Consecrated Technology operates in parallel with existing Ethical AI discourse, converging on human dignity as common ground while drawing on the convergent witness of multiple religious and contemplative traditions. Its posture is adaptive in origin, transformative in horizon. Full article

The adaptive reuse of industrial heritage produces diverse functional outcomes, yet how multiple conditions combine to shape these outcomes remains unclear. This study adapts the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework to industrial heritage reuse and applies crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA) to 58 projects. The analysis examines convertibility, digital technology adoption, ultimate controller, value factor, policy environment, and locational environment as conditions for cultural, commercial, and public-service functional outcomes. No single condition was necessary across all three outcomes; sufficiency analysis identified five cultural, four commercial, and four public-service configurational paths. Cultural outcomes showed diverse configurational paths, commercial outcomes centered on relatively stable market-oriented conditions, and all public-service paths shared a nonprofit ultimate controller as a core condition. Across the analyzed cases, the formation of functional types exhibited multi-condition conjunction and equifinality, with condition roles varying across configurations and outcomes. Robustness checks showed that the dominant configurations remained relatively stable under the tested thresholds, whereas supplementary configurations were more sensitive to the case-frequency cutoff. The findings indicate that the TOE framework can be contextually translated to the setting of industrial heritage adaptive reuse and used for configurational comparisons across the three functional outcomes. Full article

Urban anomalies such as rare facilities, unusual spatial configurations, and atypical functional patterns can provide valuable insights into urban dynamics and planning processes. However, graph-based anomaly discovery methods often suffer from instability, producing substantially different results across training runs and making the detected anomalies difficult to reproduce and interpret. In this paper, we use the term anomaly to denote automatically detected abnormal urban entities, while the term urban irregularity refers to their interpretation within the urban context. We present a consensus-driven framework for stable anomaly discovery using multi-relational point-of-interest (POI) graphs. Urban facilities are represented as nodes connected through multiple spatial and semantic relations, including geographic proximity, shared categories, shared facility types, and region-based associations. Four graph autoencoder architectures (GAE, ResGAE, VGAE, and SAGEAE) are employed to learn node representations, while reconstruction-, cluster-, neighborhood-, and relation-based anomaly scoring strategies are combined with multi-seed stability analysis to identify consensus anomalies. Experiments conducted on five large-scale cities (Baku, Turin, Vienna, Prague, and Kuala Lumpur) show that the proposed framework identifies recurring anomaly patterns across repeated runs and analytical configurations. Comparisons with representative anomaly detectors reveal partial but method-dependent overlap, while cross-city control experiments indicate that a subset of the detected anomalies exhibits non-random semantic and structural correspondence across different urban environments. Additional analyses suggest that consensus anomalies are frequently associated with semantically distinctive urban entities, including recreational areas, utility infrastructure, institutional facilities, specialized services, and cultural landmarks. Overall, the results indicate that stability-aware consensus provides a more reproducible and consistent basis for graph-based urban anomaly discovery and supports the interpretation of recurrent anomaly patterns in large-scale urban POI graphs, without requiring ground-truth anomaly labels. Full article

Safety culture has become a central construct in occupational safety management due to its recognized influence on organizational performance and accident prevention. However, the absence of a universally applicable assessment methodology has contributed to substantial methodological fragmentation. Therefore, this scoping review aimed to identify, classify, and critically analyze methodological approaches for safety culture assessment. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, studies published between January 2016 and October 2025 were retrieved from Scopus, Web of Science, and Dimensions. Study selection and methodological quality appraisal were conducted using predefined eligibility criteria and the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT, version 2018). Through a descriptive synthesis, the 25 included studies revealed a heterogeneous landscape encompassing psychometric surveys, multi-criteria and maturity-based models, and triangulated approaches. The findings indicate that each methodological family captures different dimensions of safety culture. Psychometric approaches provide scalability and comparability but remain dependent on self-reported perceptions, whereas multi-criteria models support structured organizational diagnosis. Triangulated approaches integrate multiple sources of evidence and facilitate the examination of discrepancies between formal organizational arrangements and operational practices. Overall, the review highlights the diversity of available assessment approaches and suggests that the evaluation’s objectives, context, and scope should guide the selection of the methodology. Full article

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) constitute an integrated framework for global sustainability, yet progress remains inconsistent across regions and indicators four years before 2030. Identifying the key issues and factors that influence SDG performance is therefore essential for effective implementation and the post-2030 sustainable development agenda. This paper presents a systematic review and thematic synthesis of empirical studies investigating the factors associated with SDG outcomes. Peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2026 were identified across Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed databases and coded according to the SDGs examined, geographic scope, methodological approach and key findings. A total of 43 studies were selected from 684 initial records, covering all 17 SDGs across diverse geographical contexts. Seven cross-cutting themes were identified: governance and institutional capacity; socioeconomic status and cultural barriers; gender equality; education; technology, digital connectivity and innovation; environmental factors; and healthcare infrastructure and access. Theoretically, this review advances sustainable development literature by shifting the paradigm from single-goal evaluations towards an integrated, cross-cutting systems framework. Practically, it highlights the necessity of multi-sectoral financing, institutional capacity building and localised policy interventions to accelerate global progress leading up to and beyond 2030. Full article

Climate-related and environmental hazards affect cultural heritage sites in markedly different inland, coastal, lacustrine and underwater settings, creating documentation requirements that cannot be addressed by a single sensing approach. This study presents the multi-sensor geometric documentation of eight cultural heritage sites. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry was applied to six inland and coastal sites, while underwater photogrammetry, unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), acoustic sounding and a prototype green-wavelength flash LiDAR were used at three shallow-water sites. The campaigns produced orthomosaics, elevation models, dense point clouds, textured meshes, bathymetric maps and underwater LiDAR point clouds at scales appropriate to the conservation problem of each site. The resulting products document exposed architectural remains, excavation areas, cliffs and unstable slopes, lake-margin changes, submerged masonry, wooden structures and lakebed morphology. Their main contribution is the establishment of spatially explicit, site-specific baselines that provide measurable geometric and visual evidence for condition assessment, future repeat-survey comparisons and the spatial integration of environmental, archaeological and conservation information. The study demonstrates the operational and information complementarity of optical, acoustic and active ranging approaches, which address different documentation scales, environmental constraints and heritage targets, and provide distinct spatial evidence that can serve as potential inputs to subsequent digital twin and decision support applications. Full article

Reliable and culturally appropriate measurement instruments are essential for advancing museum research and enabling meaningful comparisons across studies. However, evidence regarding the psychometric performance of existing scales outside their original cultural settings remains limited. This study aimed to develop and psychometrically validate integrated measures of museum quality and museum perceived value in the Slovenian museum context by combining newly developed items with items adapted from established measurement instruments. Scale development followed a multi-study design. First, measurement items were developed and evaluated through expert assessment to establish content validity. The scales were then refined using exploratory factor analysis and subsequently validated through confirmatory factor analysis to assess their factorial structure, reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity using an independent sample of museum visitors. Finally, nomological validity was examined by testing the relationships between museum quality, perceived value, and visitor satisfaction. The findings supported the proposed multidimensional structure of both scales and demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties. The validated instruments provide reliable measures for assessing museum quality and perceived value in the Slovenian museum context and offer a methodological foundation for future research and further validation of these constructs in other cultural settings. Replication with larger samples is recommended to obtain more robust estimates of latent factor correlations. Full article

Produced water (PW) is the largest waste stream generated during oil and gas production and poses significant environmental challenges, particularly in water-scarce regions. This study presents a multi-tiered assessment of PW from six Libyan oilfields across three sedimentary basins, integrating physicochemical characterization, trace metal and lithium analysis, radiological evaluation, and molecular identification of selected cultured bacterial isolates. Results revealed substantial variability, with total dissolved solids ranging from 8443 to 222,000 mg/L, chloride up to 153,423 mg/L, and total petroleum hydrocarbons reaching 98.5 mg/L. Elevated concentrations of barium, strontium, iron, and mercury exceeded guideline limits in selected samples. Radiological analysis indicated low radionuclide activity in the aqueous phase, while scanning electron microscopy confirmed NORM accumulation in sulfate-rich mineral scales. Molecular identification using 16S rRNA sequencing revealed hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, including Microbacterium ureisolvens, Exiguobacterium aquaticum, Kocuria rosea, and Nocardia coubleae, with the latter two, to the best of our knowledge, reported for the first time in PW environments. These findings provide insight into selected cultured bacterial isolates associated with PW and their potential relevance for bioremediation. Overall, the results provide a baseline understanding of PW characteristics in the analyzed samples and emphasize the need for further large-scale investigations. Full article

Engineering literacy research has been dominated by static, competence-based frameworks that fail to explain how attributes evolve dynamically and systematically underrepresent two critical dimensions: engineering consciousness as a cognitive precursor to decision-making, and engineering culture as a value-laden, inherited dimension sustaining professional identity across generations. These gaps are particularly consequential for STEM teacher preparation, where cultivating comprehensive engineering literacy in future educators is hypothesized to create a multiplier effect on societal STEM engagement. This study develops a theoretical model through a systematized literature retrieval and critical synthesis of engineering literacy literature (2005–2025; N = 113 publications), combined with theoretical deduction grounded in system theory and synergy theory. Two research questions guide the study: (1) How is the connotation of engineering literacy systematically reconstructed under multiple transformations? (2) What is the synergistic evolution logic among its constituent elements, and how can this logic inform curriculum design for STEM teacher preparation? The design utility of the model is illustrated through a curriculum design case. The analysis yields a “multi-driver, five-dimension synergy” dynamic model comprising five interconnected elements (knowledge, competence, consciousness, ethics, and culture) that co-evolve through a “consciousness–action–culture” spiral cycle, in which culture functions as the slow variable governing the long-term evolution of the entire system. The curriculum design case (a 64 h course for pre-service teachers centered on the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge) illustrates how the model guided curricular decisions in four areas: consciousness activation before skill training, distributed cultural integration, multidimensional assessment, and operationalization of the multiplier effect through a teaching transformation module. The study advances engineering literacy theory by upgrading it from a static competence inventory to a culturally embedded, consciousness-driven adaptive ecosystem and provides a potentially transferable curriculum design framework for STEM teacher preparation. As a design case, the curriculum blueprint awaits implementation and empirical validation; claims about learning outcomes, multiplier effects, and cross-cultural applicability are theoretical hypotheses rather than empirically validated findings. Full article

Cultural heritage faces escalating pressures from mass tourism, environmental degradation, and physical decay, yet existing scholarship predominantly examines Artificial Intelligence(AI) and Virtual Reality(VR) as separate tools rather than as an integrated systemic mechanism. This exploratory study investigates how their convergence can be conceptualized as a mechanism for sustainable heritage management. A qualitative multi-case design was employed, integrating system-structural analysis, comparative case analysis, and conceptual modeling across six cases: comprising four analytical AI-VR convergence cases (Digital Dunhuang, European Time Machine, Vryokastro, and Wat Sri Suphan Ubosot) and two standalone VR reference cases (Rome Reborn and Khiva). The analysis suggests a functional division: Virtual Reality constructs the immersive spatial foundation of experience, while Artificial Intelligence orchestrates adaptive narrative delivery and semantic structuring. Their convergence may generate value across educational, preservation, and economic dimensions. A conceptual model is proposed, formalising this mechanism through four transformation processes: immersive spatialisation, adaptive storytelling, temporal structuring, and interactive co-creation, with the latter two presented as testable propositions requiring further empirical investigation. The model is linked to SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and offers heritage practitioners a strategic thinking framework for considering digital approaches to cultural heritage management. Full article

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.), the third most important food crop worldwide, is constrained by phytopathogens, environmental stress, and heavy agrochemical use. Potato micropropagation is a biotechnological strategy for producing genetically uniform, pathogen-free plantlets. However, the acclimatization phase remains a major bottleneck in micropropagation, often resulting in poor survival and stunted growth. In this context, plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) represent a sustainable strategy to improve plantlet establishment and reduce reliance on synthetic inputs. This study evaluated the biofertilization and biocontrol potential of three Douro vineyard-associated bacterial strains, Bacillus velezensis Nb1, Burkholderia pyrrocinia Gs3, and Streptomyces sp. 42s5, identified using 16S rRNA and gyrB sequence analysis. In dual-culture assays, the isolates showed antagonistic activity against Fusarium oxysporum, F. solani, Botrytis cinerea, and Alternaria alternata. All strains also exhibited key plant growth-promoting traits, including indole-3-acetic acid and siderophore production, and phosphate solubilization. The isolates were tested individually and in consortia on micropropagated potato plantlets during acclimatization under greenhouse conditions. Eight treatments (six replicates each), including a non-inoculated control, were evaluated. The results indicated that inoculations significantly improved vegetative growth and yield-related parameters. Notably, the Gs3 + 42s5 combination produced the highest shoot biomass, while the three-strain consortium achieved the greatest total tuber weight (36.91 g/plant) compared to the control (7.75 g/plant). These findings highlight the potential of these native PGPB, particularly when applied in multi-strain combinations, to enhance acclimatization efficiency and support sustainable potato production by reducing dependence on chemical inputs and promoting eco-friendly agricultural practices. Full article