Search Results (178)

This study explores the perspectives of monolingual English-speaking parents whose children are enrolled in elementary (Grades 1–5) French immersion (FI) in New Brunswick, Canada, where FI students learn mathematics in French. Using poetic inquiry within a feminist postmodern framework, we analyzed interview data from three parents to examine how they conceptualize the relationship between language and mathematics, and how these conceptualizations shape the ways they support their children’s mathematics learning. The resulting research poems reveal tensions in participants’ views of mathematics and language. For example, mathematics was at times positioned as detachable from language, although language was simultaneously described as a potential barrier to mathematical success. In turn, parental involvement was characterized by support toward monitoring linguistic markers, relearning pedagogical methods, and rehearsing procedures. By centring parents’ perspectives, this study contributes to research on multilingual mathematics education by illustrating how parental conceptualizations may play a role in shaping mathematics practices across home and school spaces. Methodologically, the study suggests that research poetry has analytic potential for surfacing tensions in parental sense-making that may remain overlooked in more conventional qualitative analyses. This study points to a need for resources and communication practices that support dialogue between schools and families about the relationship between language and mathematics in FI contexts. Full article

Background: The use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) in elite athletes following sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) or the diagnosis of high-risk cardiac conditions presents a complex interplay of medical, psychological, and legal challenges. Despite evolving guidelines, data on clinical outcomes and return-to-sport (RTS) trajectories in elite athletes remain limited. Objective: To describe the clinical profiles, management strategies, and career outcomes of elite athletes who received ICDs. Methods: A retrospective multilingual media and literature search was performed up to January 2026 to identify elite athletes with ICDs. Inclusion criteria required evidence of professional or Olympic-level competition, confirmed ICD implantation, and sufficient clinical and career data. Cases were analyzed for demographics, underlying diagnosis, prevention type, post-ICD outcomes, and RTS status. Results: Thirty-seven elite athletes were identified (mean age 25.8 ± 4.3 years). The most common sport was football (n = 25). Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, non-ischemic LV scar, and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy were the most frequent diagnoses, although 49% of etiologies remained unspecified. ICDs were implanted for secondary prevention in 70% of cases. Following ICD implantation, 25 athletes (68%) completed RTS, including 24 (65%) at the professional level. Among these, nine experienced shocks, and four ultimately discontinued competition. The sole fatality occurred in an athlete who had voluntarily explanted the ICD. Conclusions: A substantial proportion of elite athletes with ICDs successfully return to high-level sport, but clinical outcomes, risk tolerance, and legal frameworks remain variable. These findings support continued shifts towards personalized shared decision making and highlight the need for standardized, sport-specific RTS protocols, long-term registries, and psychosocial support in this population. Full article

Background/Objectives: The Speech-Language Pathologists (SLP) are an integral part of the multidisciplinary team approach to rehabilitation of persons with aphasia (PWA). However, the efficacy of treatment provided by SLPs can vary due to several factors related to clinicians, patients, and the availability of services. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating current practices in aphasia rehabilitation, key challenges, and future directions as perceived by the SLPs in the Indian context. Methods: The study was conducted using a web-based survey comprising a 32-item questionnaire to gather information related to demographic and professional details, knowledge and use of aphasia rehabilitation approaches, patient education, counselling, bilingual & multilingual contexts, and challenges faced by SLPs. A total of 142 responses were analyzed after initial screening to assess the knowledge, use, and confidence of aphasia rehabilitation along with challenges faced by SLPs in the Indian context. Results: The results indicated significant challenges in the assessment of aphasia due to a lack of formal screening and diagnostic languages in several languages. Further, the results also indicated variations in the knowledge level and confidence in the use of various approaches to aphasia rehabilitation, which warrants the urgent need for organizing short-term training programs for SLPs. The participants also self-reported significant challenges in managing bilingual and multilingual patients with aphasia due to differences in their knowledge and confidence in the selection of language for treatment. On the other side, major patient-related challenges include inadequate logistics, lack of funding, unavailability of speech and language therapy services, social acceptance, and support from family members. The participants also reported the necessity of improving tele-rehabilitation services and developing materials and mobile apps for rehabilitation in Indian languages as future directions for aphasia rehabilitation. Conclusions: The present study through a self-reported questionnaire identified key challenges in aphasia rehabilitation related to the clinician and PWA in the Indian context. The results of the study warrant the need for immediate action to overcome the challenges to enhance the rehabilitation services to PWAs. Full article

Drivers with color vision deficiency (CVD) often face difficulty recognizing traffic light colors at intersections. Relying solely on their limited color vision can increase safety risks while driving in urban environments. In the era of technological development, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) increasingly aim to provide support for traffic users, including individuals with CVD. To address user needs from diverse backgrounds, this study aims to develop a traffic light recognition system that provides offline multilingual audio feedback in Indonesian, Mandarin, and English. The proposed approach introduces a spatial-position inference framework by applying a full-frame traffic light annotation strategy to a YOLOv12 model, enabling traffic light state recognition based on the relative position of active lights rather than relying primarily on color information. This work contributes to reducing reliance on color-based perception traffic signal recognition frameworks tailored for assistive ITS applications targeting users with color vision deficiency. System performance is evaluated to verify its feasibility using a comprehensive dataset consisting of various traffic light conditions, including daytime and nighttime scenarios, varying weather, and different traffic densities. Experimental results show an average detection confidence of approximately 0.73, with a maximum confidence of 0.95 and low processing latency of 0.214 s on a CPU-only configuration. The system has the potential to enhance driving safety for individuals with color vision deficiency by offering an additional intelligent assistive tool instead of replacing standard driving regulations. Full article

The in-image machine translation task involves translating text embedded within images, with the translated results presented in image format. While this task has numerous applications in various scenarios such as film poster translation and everyday scene image translation, existing methods frequently neglect the aspect of consistency throughout this process. We propose the need to uphold two types of consistency in this task: translation consistency and image generation consistency. The former entails incorporating image information during translation, while the latter involves maintaining consistency between the style of the text image and the original image, ensuring background coherence. To address these consistency requirements, we introduce a novel two-stage framework named HCIIT (High-Consistency In-Image Translation), which involves text image translation using a multimodal multilingual large language model in the first stage and image backfilling with a diffusion model in the second stage. Chain-of-thought learning is employed in the first stage to enhance the model’s ability to effectively leverage visual information during translation. Subsequently, a diffusion model trained for style-consistent text–image generation is adopted. We further modify the structural network of the conventional diffusion model by introducing a style latent module, which ensures uniformity of text style within images while preserving fine-grained background details. The results obtained on both curated test sets and authentic image test sets validate the effectiveness of our framework in ensuring consistency and producing high-quality translated images. Full article

Effective communication in English is a critical behavioral competency for seafarers in a multilingual maritime environment, directly impacting operational safety. However, a gap exists between current Maritime English (ME) training in China and the actual communication demands of global seafaring. This study aims to identify the specific ME skills including linguistic, behavioral, and sociolinguistic dimensions that are most important for on-board performance and safety management from the perspective of pre-service maritime students at Shanghai Maritime University. A mixed-methods approach was used, combining structured questionnaires (n = 313) with in-depth follow-up interviews (n = 10). The results identified 24 highly needed ME skills, particularly focused on areas governing safety-critical behaviors, such as wireless communication, security protocols, and emergency procedures. In addition, based on learner profiling, the study depicts two different learner characteristics: exam-focused and work-focused students, each with different views on the importance of skills. Work-focused students place greater emphasis on the practicality of their skills. The interview data confirms and enriches these quantitative research results. The research findings emphasize that ME courses must be more closely aligned with real-world communicative scenarios and behaviors, prioritize scenario based teaching and practical operations, and tailor differentiated teaching based on learner psychology and behavioral preference. This study offers references for maritime education institutions with similar learner profiles to optimize ME curricula, prioritize secure communication skills, and strengthen industry-education collaboration, thereby enhancing pre-service maritime students’ safety behavior and professional competitiveness in China. Full article

This study examined how cultural background and self-reported gender influence student–faculty email communication in English-Medium Instruction (EMI) settings. Advanced international language learners (N = 113) wrote emails in English to either Korean or international professors without prior instruction. The emails were analyzed for framing elements and request strategies using holistic assessment. The findings revealed significant patterns in formality and strategy use based on professor nationality and student gender. Emails to Korean professors exhibited higher formality levels, especially among students with better framing appropriateness scores. Cultural differences emerged in request strategies: international students favored performative requests, while Korean students preferred disarmers. Self-reported gender also correlated with different framing strategies, particularly when communicating with Korean professors. These findings highlight the complex interaction among culture, gender, and pragmatic awareness in EMI academic correspondence. The study underscores the importance of understanding cross-cultural communication patterns in diverse educational environments and suggests the need for further research into multilingual communication practices in higher education to better support international student populations. Full article

Background: Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is essential for slowing disease progression and mitigating cognitive decline. However, conventional diagnostic methods are often invasive, time-consuming, and costly, limiting their utility in large-scale screening. There is an urgent need for scalable, non-invasive, and accessible screening tools. Methods: We propose a novel screening framework combining a pre-trained multimodal large language model with structured MMSE speech tasks. An artificial intelligence-assisted multilingual Mini-Mental State Examination system (AAM-MMSE) was utilized to collect voice data from 1098 participants in Sichuan and Chongqing. CosyVoice2 was used to extract speaker embeddings, speech labels, and acoustic features, which were converted into statistical representations. Fourteen machine learning models were developed for subject classification into three diagnostic categories: Healthy Control (HC), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). SHAP analysis was employed to assess the importance of the extracted speech features. Results: Among the evaluated models, LightGBM and Gradient Boosting classifiers exhibited the highest performance, achieving an average AUC of 0.9501 across classification tasks. SHAP-based analysis revealed that spectral complexity, energy dynamics, and temporal features were the most influential in distinguishing cognitive states, aligning with known speech impairments in early-stage AD. Conclusions: This framework offers a non-invasive, interpretable, and scalable solution for cognitive screening. It is suitable for both clinical and telemedicine applications, demonstrating the potential of speech-based AI models in early AD detection. Full article

Background/Objectives: Family members are the principal providers of home-based care for migrant older adults. Linguistic, cultural, and structural barriers within health systems exacerbate the caregiver burden across emotional, physical and financial domains. Although home healthcare services may alleviate this burden, variability in access, cultural safety, and care coordination can also intensify it. This scoping review maps the evidence on the burden experienced by family caregivers who deliver home-based healthcare to migrant older adults and examines how these arrangements affect caregivers’ health and well-being. It synthesizes the literature on facilitators and barriers—including access, cultural-linguistic fit, coordination with formal services, and legal/immigration constraints—and distills implications for policy and practice to strengthen equitable, culturally responsive home care. Method: The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) scoping review framework was used to conduct the review. A comprehensive search was performed across six databases (CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, MEDLINE and Sociological Abstracts) for articles published between 2000 and 2025. Studies were selected based on predefined inclusion criteria focusing on the family caregiver burden in providing home healthcare for migrant older adults. Data extraction and thematic analysis were conducted to identify key themes. Results: The review identified 20 studies across various geographical regions, highlighting four key themes: (1) Multidimensional Caregiver Burden, (2) The Influence of Gender, Family Hierarchy, and Migratory Trajectories on Caregiving, (3) Limited Access to Formal and Culturally Appropriate Support, and (4) Health Outcomes, Coping, and the Need for Community-Based Solutions. Conclusions: System-level reforms are required to advance equity in home healthcare for aging migrants. Priorities include establishing accountable cultural-safety training for providers; expanding multilingual access across intake, assessment, and follow-up; and formally recognizing and resourcing family caregivers (e.g., navigation support, respite, training, and financial relief). Investment in community-driven programs, frameworks and targeted outreach—co-designed with migrant communities—can mitigate isolation and improve uptake. While home healthcare is pivotal, structural inequities and cultural barriers continue to constrain equitable access. Addressing these gaps demands coordinated policy action, enhanced provider preparation, and culturally responsive care models. Future research should evaluate innovative frameworks that integrate community partnerships and culturally responsive practices to reduce the caregiver burden and improve outcomes for migrant families. Full article

Acoustic voice analysis demonstrates potential as a non-invasive biomarker for depression, yet its generalizability across languages remains underexplored. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify a set of cross-culturally consistent acoustic features for depression screening using distinct Vietnamese and Japanese voice datasets. We analyzed anonymized recordings from 251 participants, comprising 123 Vietnamese individuals assessed via the self-report Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and 128 Japanese individuals assessed via the clinician-rated Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D). From 6373 features extracted with openSMILE, a multi-stage selection pipeline identified 12 cross-cultural features, primarily from the auditory spectrum (AudSpec), Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs), and logarithmic Harmonics-to-Noise Ratio (logHNR) domains. The cross-cultural model achieved a combined Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.934, with performance disparities observed between the Japanese (AUC = 0.993) and Vietnamese (AUC = 0.913) cohorts. This disparity may be attributed to dataset heterogeneity, including mismatched diagnostic tools and differing sample compositions (clinical vs. mixed community). Furthermore, the limited number of high-risk cases (n = 33) warrants cautious interpretation regarding the reliability of reported AUC values for severe depression classification. These findings suggest the presence of a core acoustic signature related to physiological psychomotor changes that may transcend linguistic boundaries. This study advances the exploration of global vocal biomarkers but underscores the need for prospective, standardized multilingual trials to overcome the limitations of secondary data analysis. Full article

Scene text detection in multilingual environments poses significant challenges. Traditional detection methods often struggle with language-specific features and require extensive annotated training data for each language, making them less practical for multilingual contexts. The diversity of character shapes, sizes, and orientations in natural scenes, along with text deformation and partial occlusions, further complicates the task of detection. This paper introduces LICS (Locating Inter-Character Spaces), a method that detects inter-character gaps as language-agnostic structural cues, enabling more feasible multilingual text detection. A two-stage approach is employed: first, we train on synthetic data with precise character gap annotations, and then apply weakly supervised learning to real-world datasets with word-level labels. The weakly supervised learning framework eliminates the need for character-level annotations in target languages, substantially reducing the annotation burden while maintaining robust performance. Experimental results on the ICDAR and Total-Text benchmarks demonstrate the strong performance of LICS, particularly on Asian scripts. We also introduce CSVT (Character-Labeled Street View Text), a new scene-text dataset comprising approximately 20,000 carefully annotated streetscape images. A set of standardized labeling principles is established to ensure consistent annotation of text locations, content, and language types. CSVT is expected to facilitate more advanced research and development in multilingual scene-text analysis. Full article

This study examines lexical and syntactic convergence between Dai Lue and Chinese in the multilingual environment of Sipsongpanna, employing an apparent-time approach across three generational cohorts (N = 90, balanced gender). Through mixed-methods analysis (structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews), significant diachronic variation was observed. Younger speakers exhibited pronounced convergence, adopting Chinese-derived syntactic patterns (e.g., prenominal quantifiers and preverbal adjunct phrases) and borrowing Chinese lexical elements (e.g., an adverb sɛn⁵⁵ ‘first’ ← Chinese 先 xiān, and a superlative marker tsui³⁵ ‘most/best’ ← Chinese 最 zuì). Middle-aged speakers use transitional hybrid structures, while older speakers more consistently maintain native Dai Lue features. The results conform with Labov’s age-grading model in contact linguistics and refine Thomason’s borrowing hierarchy by revealing two factors: First, the prestige of the Chinese language drives convergence among youth. Second, syntactic compatibility with Chinese is mediated not merely by language structure, but by discourse-pragmatic needs, functional load redistribution, and the social indexicality of borrowed structures. This underscores the interplay between sociolinguistic motivations and structural-adaptive constraints in language change. The findings provide critical insights into language contact mechanisms among ethnic minorities of China, with implications for sociolinguistic theory, language revitalization efforts, and bilingual education policy implementation in linguistically diverse communities. Full article

This integrative review on patterns of elder caregiving in Nigeria synthesizes evolving dynamics and determinants of caregiving practices amid demographic and household change. The objective of this review was to identify prevalent patterns of elder caregiving, explore the roles and responsibilities of caregivers, and examine the challenges and support needs within the Nigerian context. Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Medline were searched in November 2024. Inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed journal articles published in English focusing on elder caregiving among Nigerians; non-peer-reviewed sources (e.g., dissertations, conference papers, and books) were excluded. Data extraction was performed using a structured matrix, and findings were synthesized thematically. Risk of bias was appraised using SANRA (for narrative reviews) and MMAT (for empirical studies). Twenty studies published between 1991 and December 2022 were included. Analyses were guided by an intersectional conceptual framework spanning five domains: cultural, familial, economic, psychosocial, and policy. The interconnected dimensions illustrate how cultural expectations shape family caregiving roles, which in turn influence economic strain, emotional well-being, and access to institutional support. By emphasizing the interaction among gender, class, and social location within these domains, the framework demonstrates how caregiving operates as a multidimensional and relational process. Thematic synthesis identified six overarching themes: cultural influences, gender differences, family dynamics, economic factors, challenges faced by Nigerian caregivers, and government policies and support. Limitations include reliance on single-reviewer screening and extraction, exclusion of unpublished and non-peer-reviewed sources, restriction to English-language studies, and a focus on the Nigerian context, which may limit generalizability. Findings underscore that elder caregiving in Nigeria is multifaceted and shaped by intersecting gendered, cultural, and economic forces. Policy and practice should prioritize caregiver supports, accessible geriatric services, and gender-sensitive interventions, while future research applies the framework to address gaps in transnational and multilingual evidence. Full article

(1) Background: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy has become a cornerstone of equine regenerative medicine, yet significant methodological variability compromises reproducibility and clinical comparability. (2) Methods: This scoping review systematically mapped and analyzed peer-reviewed studies describing equine PRP preparation methods and commercial systems (2000–2024) following PRISMA-ScR guidelines. (3) Results: Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria, encompassing 317 horses and both manual and commercial devices. Double-spin manual protocols predominated, though centrifugation parameters, anticoagulants, and activation strategies varied widely. Methodological quality, assessed using an adapted nine-criterion framework, revealed that only 29% of studies achieved comprehensive reporting, particularly lacking platelet-yield and activation details. An additional multilingual web search identified 24 veterinary PRP kits, of which only 10 had published validation in horses, exposing a pronounced gap between marketing claims and scientific evidence. (4) Conclusions: These discrepancies underscore the need for standardized reporting, transparent characterization, and independent evaluation of PRP systems. The proposed framework aims to guide future research toward reproducible, evidence-based practices that enhance therapeutic reliability and clinical translation in equine regenerative medicine. Full article

Background: In Ethiopia, children identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families face substantial challenges in obtaining timely diagnosis and appropriate services, including limited public awareness, cultural stigma, and shortages of trained professionals. Understanding how social and communication difficulties manifest in children identified with ASD within Ethiopian service settings is essential for designing culturally and contextually responsive interventions. Objectives: This study aimed to describe the social-communication characteristics of children enrolled in two major autism-focused centers and to examine contextual influences shaping their communication profiles. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was employed. Quantitative data were collected from parents or guardians of 110 children using the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ). Qualitative data were gathered through five focus group discussions with 56 service providers. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were applied to SCQ scores, while thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative transcripts. Results: Overall, 90% of participating children scored above the SCQ clinical cutoff of 15, indicating pronounced social and communication challenges, though these scores represent symptom patterns rather than confirmed diagnoses. No significant differences in SCQ scores were observed by age or gender. Thematic analysis identified four major contextual influences on children’s social-communicative behaviors: cultural beliefs about disability, multilingual communication environments, systemic barriers to service access, and persistent community stigma. Conclusions: These findings underscore the need for culturally adapted screening tools and community-based interventions that account for sociocultural and structural influences on communication. Strengthening early identification, reducing stigma, and improving service accessibility may enhance support for children with ASD in low-resource, collectivist settings. Full article