Search Results (232)

Efficient task offloading in UAV-assisted heterogeneous mobile edge computing (MEC) networks is increasingly challenged by the co-existence of operationally distinct workload scenarios—including high-demand bursts, resource-constrained periods, and balanced operational states—each demanding fundamentally different assignment strategies. In such networks, mobile executor nodes (e.g., UAVs or vehicle-mounted edge servers) must be dispatched to the vicinity of geographically distributed tasks, making assignment decisions jointly dependent on node mobility, the quality of sensing data, and dynamic resource availability. Conventional approaches based on combinatorial optimization with fixed parameters or greedy heuristics fail to adapt to these varying conditions, leading to resource depletion under sequential workloads or underutilization under high-demand bursts. To address these limitations, this paper proposes SAGE (Scene-Adaptive Graph-Enhanced offloading), a task-offloading framework that combines a heterogeneous graph neural network (HeteroGNN) with a dueling double DQN meta-controller and a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) solver. At the state-representation level, a heterogeneous bipartite graph is constructed over mobile executor nodes and tasks, with type-specific projection layers encoding the semantic features of each node type and three-dimensional edge features—comprising task success probability, normalized service distance, and link quality—integrated via edge-gated message passing. At the decision level, the meta-controller perceives the current workload scenario through a seven-dimensional situational state vector fused with the graph embedding, selects an appropriate offloading strategy from a learned discrete action space, and drives the MILP solver to perform task-chain assignment under the selected configuration. Experiments on 60 fixed evaluation episodes spanning three representative workload scenarios demonstrate that SAGE achieves an overall reward improvement of 15.9% over the best fixed-strategy baseline, reduces the resource depletion rate to 16.7%, and maintains a high-priority task completion rate of 84.7%. Particularly under resource-constrained conditions, SAGE reduces the reward deficit by 72.3% relative to the best fixed strategy (from $-0.531$ to $-0.147$), demonstrating strong scene-adaptive decision-making capability. Full article

The adoption of telework has intensified the need to understand how organizational practices influence employee behaviors in contexts characterized by reduced face-to-face interaction. Based on Social Exchange Theory, this study examines the effects of perceived organizational support and reward systems on work engagement among teleworkers and explores the mediating role of organizational trust. A cross-sectional quantitative design was employed, using survey data collected from 405 teleworkers operating in Portugal. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the proposed relationships. The results indicated that both perceived organizational support and reward systems exert statistically validated positive effects on work engagement, with reward systems being the strongest predictor. Organizational trust played a mediating role, reinforcing the impact of support and rewards on engagement. These results suggested that organizational practices function not only as instrumental resources but also as relational signals that shape trust and promote reciprocal employee responses in remote work contexts. By integrating support, rewards, trust, and engagement into a single analytical framework, this study contributed to the literature on telework and human resource management. The results reinforce the importance of management practices rooted in trust and support to promote engagement and organizational effectiveness in remote work environments. Full article

Background/Objectives: Alcohol consumption is a major public health concern among university students. However, less is known about how positive and negative alcohol-related perceptions are jointly associated with drinking contexts, motives, and risk behaviors in Brazilian college samples. This study examined positive and negative perceptions of alcohol use and their associations with high-risk drinking, drinking contexts, motivations, and risk behaviors among Brazilian college students. Methods: This cross-sectional online study included 367 Brazilian college students aged 18 to 30 years (M = 22.2; SD = 2.92). Alcohol use was assessed using the AUDIT-C, and perceptions were measured using the Scale of Perceptions about Alcohol Consumption in Higher Education Students. Analyses included descriptive statistics, Mann–Whitney U tests, chi-square tests, Spearman correlations, and age- and gender-adjusted logistic regression models. Results: High-risk alcohol use was identified in 55.6% of participants. Positive perceptions were associated with higher odds of high-risk alcohol use (aOR = 4.85), whereas negative perceptions were associated with lower odds (aOR = 0.50). Drinking in nightclubs/parties (aOR = 4.44) and bars (aOR = 3.91) was associated with higher odds of high-risk alcohol use. Driving after drinking showed the strongest association among risk behaviors (aOR = 5.25), and marijuana was the only other substance significantly associated with this outcome. Conclusions: High-risk drinking among Brazilian college students was associated with perceived alcohol benefits, social drinking contexts, drinking motives, and selected risk behaviors. Prevention strategies should address the perceived social and emotional rewards of drinking. Findings should be interpreted as associations within this cross-sectional convenience sample. Full article

Background/Objectives: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is increasingly recognized as a multisystem disorder affecting perceptual, emotional, and reward-related processes. While arts-based interventions in PD have primarily focused on active creative arts engagement, it remains unclear whether receptive arts engagement with visual art—how artworks are perceived and evaluated—is altered. Our objective is to determine whether aesthetic evaluation of visual artworks differs in individuals with PD compared to age-matched healthy controls. We further examine whether emotional interpretation, color-emotion associations, and experiential responses to art viewing are altered. Methods: In a cross-sectional case–control study, individuals with PD (n = 87) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 49) completed two online assessments. Participants evaluated 36 artworks from the Vienna Art Picture System in terms of liking, beauty, and subjective art attributes. Objective image-derived features were computed for each artwork. Interpretable machine learning models were used to test whether evaluation patterns predicted diagnostic group and to identify determinants of aesthetic judgments. Participants further completed a color-emotion association task using ambiguous expressive portraits and reported perceived changes in cognitive, emotional, motivational, and physical states following art viewing. Results: Aesthetic evaluation patterns did not support reliable classification of PD status, indicating no systematic group differences in liking, beauty, or attribute-based judgments between PD and controls. Instead, aesthetic judgments were robustly predicted by individual differences and objective artwork properties, including art-historical style, symmetry, complexity, and color-related features, whereas diagnostic group, gender, and age did not contribute to predictions. Emotional interpretation and color-emotion associations were largely comparable between groups, with a single specific deviation in color-emotion mapping. Positive emotions were less frequently associated with pink in people with PD. Self-reported experiential responses to art viewing did not differ significantly between groups. Conclusions: Aesthetic evaluation of visual artworks appears largely preserved in people with PD. These findings suggest that, in digital viewing contexts, substantial adaptation of visual content to make it accessible for people with PD may not be necessary, although subtle perceptual and emotional differences may still be relevant. Efforts may instead be better directed toward addressing practical barriers to visual art engagement. Full article

Background/Objectives: Nurses’ engagement in research is essential to strengthen evidence-based practice, knowledge translation, and quality of care. However, individual, organisational, and cultural barriers may limit nurses’ participation in research activities. This study aimed to cross-culturally adapt and psychometrically test the Italian version of the Barriers to Nurses’ Participation in Research Questionnaire within the Italian cultural and healthcare organisational context, and to explore perceived obstacles to research engagement among nurses in Italy. Methods: A cross-sectional methodological study was conducted. The instrument was translated, back-translated, reviewed by the original instrument developer and an expert panel, and evaluated for content validity by 12 clinical research professionals. Data were collected online between September and October 2024 from 196 nurses working across Italian healthcare settings, including hospitals, university hospitals, IRCCS, primary care, and private hospitals. Exploratory Structural Equation Modelling was used to examine the factor structure. Results: A total of 196 nurses were enrolled in the study. A two-factor structure was identified, comprising Research Resources and Personal Relevance of Research, which explained 35.37% and 25.14% of the variance, respectively. Both factors demonstrated good reliability. The most prominent barrier was the lack of incentive or reward for nurses to engage in research, whereas the least relevant barrier was the perception that research was not interesting or valuable. Greater barriers were reported by younger nurses, those with fewer years of experience, and those without specific research training. Lack of time to conduct research emerged as a pervasive obstacle across the sample. Conclusions: The Italian version of the Barriers to Nurses’ Participation in Research Questionnaire provides preliminary evidence of validity and reliability for assessing perceived barriers to research participation among Italian nurses. Owing to the structural modifications introduced during adaptation, the instrument should be interpreted as a culturally adapted and modified Italian version rather than as a direct replication of the original structure. Its use may support organisational diagnosis, research mentorship, training planning, and future research-capacity-building initiatives, although further validation in larger and more heterogeneous samples is warranted. Full article

This study examines the relationships between intrinsic motivation factors—task autonomy, personal growth and development opportunities, self-actualization, and decision-making participation—and employee retention, as well as the mediating role of perceived organizational pride. Using a quantitative cross-sectional survey, data were collected from 154 academic staff members at Taif University, Saudi Arabia. CFA supported the measurement model, and the hypotheses were tested using Hayes’ PROCESS macro. The findings show that all intrinsic motivation factors are positively associated with employee retention. Perceived organizational pride also mediates these relationships, suggesting that intrinsically motivating work conditions may support retention by strengthening employees’ pride in institutional membership. The results further indicate that developmental and participative factors show stronger associations with retention than task autonomy. This study contributes to employee retention research by integrating intrinsic motivation and identity-based explanations in the context of Saudi higher education. However, given the cross-sectional design and single-university sample, causal interpretation and generalizability should be treated with caution. The findings highlight the importance of growth-oriented, participative, and pride-enhancing work environments for supporting academic staff retention. Full article

National Forest Trails (NFTs), a key component of forest welfare infrastructure, increasingly require a shift from government-led management to citizen-participatory governance. This study examined the structural relationships among volunteer motivation, activity satisfaction, perceived quality-of-life (QoL) change, and behavioral intention in the context of NFT volunteering. A survey was conducted with 217 adults who had participated in forest trail volunteering programs in Korea, and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that volunteer motivation had significant positive effects on reward importance, activity satisfaction, and perceived QoL change. Activity satisfaction positively influenced both Future Participation Intention and Active Participation Intention, whereas perceived QoL change had a significant positive effect only on Active Participation Intention. In addition, activity satisfaction and perceived QoL change mediated the relationship between volunteer motivation and Active Participation Intention. These findings suggest that forest trail volunteers are not merely supplementary labor for trail management, but active participants in forest governance who both contribute to and benefit from the environments they help sustain. Overall, the study indicates that sustainable NFT volunteering depends not only on motivation itself, but also on the quality and personal meaning of the volunteer experience. The findings highlight the importance of experience-centered program design, appropriate recognition systems, and greater attention to participant-centered well-being outcomes in sustainable forest trail governance. Full article

As climate governance increasingly shifts toward consumption-side intervention, digital platforms such as the Carbon Generalized System of Preferences have become important tools for promoting low-carbon behavior. However, existing studies have mainly focused on participation and engagement, paying limited attention to users’ advocacy intentions. Drawing on the perceived value perspective and Social Exchange Theory, this study examines how perceived rewards and gameful experiences influence advocacy intentions through perceived benefits and low perceived costs. A three-wave survey of Chinese respondents was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The results show that perceived rewards enhance perceived benefits, while gameful experiences increase perceived benefits and reduce users’ actual perceived burden. In turn, perceived benefits and lower perceived costs both promote advocacy intentions. The mediation analysis confirms the important roles of perceived benefits and low perceived costs, while the fsQCA results identify three distinct configurations leading to high advocacy intentions. This study extends CGSP research from participation to advocacy and offers practical implications for designing digital low-carbon platforms. Full article

Digital gamification may function as motivational scaffolding within situated course designs when it helps learners perceive progress, participate actively, and connect course activities with meaningful professional goals. This article examines how motivational scaffolds were designed and refined through digital gamification in a fourth-year science course in early childhood teacher education. Using a two-cycle design-based research approach, the study analyzed an initial FantasyClass-supported implementation and a subsequent redesigned version. In Cycle 1, broad affective outcomes, feature ratings, and open responses were associated with more favorable recent learning experiences, somewhat more favorable current views of science and its relevance, and higher perceived science-teaching capability and preparedness. Feature-level evidence identified progression, collaborative work, and narrative coherence as central motivational supports. These findings informed Cycle 2, which recalibrated selected mechanics and strengthened the narrative structure. Post-course Intrinsic Motivation Inventory results were descriptively consistent with above-midpoint enjoyment, perceived competence, and perceived choice, with enjoyment positively associated with competence and choice. Qualitative evidence highlighted active participation, progress awareness, and perceived relevance for future teaching. The findings suggest that, under the design conditions examined here, digital gamification may support motivationally meaningful course design when treated as motivational scaffolding rather than as an isolated reward system. Full article

Background/Objectives: This study explored parents’ perspectives regarding digital media use in children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) and examined how these views vary according to family and clinical characteristics. Methods: Data were collected from an Italian survey involving 352 families. Items assessed the perceived effects of digital devices on child development and parenting, awareness of screen time guidelines, and use of time- and content-limiting tools. Quantitative analyses were complemented by a reflexive thematic analysis of open-ended responses describing how digital media influenced parenting. Results: Parents expressed divergent attitudes towards digital media, with broadly similar proportions reporting positive, neutral, and negative views regarding both child development and parenting. More favourable views were associated with greater perceived benefits for children and were more frequent among parents of children with more severe functional disabilities. About half had discussed screen use with health professionals, and most were aware of existing guidelines. Thematic analysis identified six themes related to digital parenting: educational means (digital devices as tools for communication, learning, and socialisation), entertainment (screens as a source of leisure or behavioural management), reward (digital media used as reinforcement), screen time as a “necessity” (technology as an integral and sometimes rehabilitative part of daily life), negative effects on the child (concerns about detachment, reduced social interaction, and mood dysregulation), and parental behaviour and attitudes (reflecting the emotional burden of regulation and broader beliefs about digital media). Conclusions: Parents of children with NDs navigate digital media use through a complex balance of perceived risks and benefits. Findings highlight the need for family-centred guidance and assistive technology approaches that promote digital inclusion while addressing parental stress and regulatory challenges. Full article

We examine factors that allow higher status people to steal credit from lower status people. Drawing on opportunity hoarding research and status characteristics and expectation states theory, we develop the concept of status hoarding: the use of one’s status position to accumulate more status through illegitimate means. Compared to similar concepts such as the Matthew Effect, which do not offer a mechanism by which benefits disproportionately accumulate, status hoarding explains how group structures give rise to perceptions of competence and reward deservingness among group members, which facilitate higher status actors’ ability to steal credit and thus increase their status. We use two survey experiments to test our arguments on the role of expectations and referential structures in both assigning credit to higher status actors and inhibiting lower status actors from reporting theft of their ideas. In study one, we find that participants were more likely to assign credit for a valued task contribution to a higher status actor, and these effects were mediated by expectations for reward and competence. In study two, we find that people perceive higher status actors as more likely to report credit stealing to their supervisors, but these effects were not mediated by expectations in the way that we predicted. We conclude with a general discussion of the broader implications of status hoarding and directions for future research. Full article

The structural integrity of the Hungarian healthcare system is threatened by a systemic shortage of General Practitioners (GPs), with 1021 districts remaining vacant as of March 2026. This study assessed demographic characteristics, perceived career attributes, and temperament and character traits of 144 medical students and 72 practicing GPs, achieving an overall response rate of 91.5%, using the TCI-55 inventory to identify factors influencing professional pathways. Statistical analysis utilized Mann–Whitney U, Chi-square, and Fisher’s exact tests. Results showed only 6 students indicated family medicine as their first choice, compared to 49 GPs (p < 0.001). Students frequently perceived the field as “boring” (82 students vs. 1 GP, p < 0.001) and burdened by “trivial patient problems” (44 students vs. 7 GPs, p = 0.001), while GPs highlighted “stress” (15 GPs vs. 4 students, p < 0.001) as a primary disadvantage. Students scored significantly higher in the temperament dimensions of Novelty Seeking (p < 0.001) and Reward Dependence (p < 0.001). Addressing these educational misperceptions and urgently mitigating the structural drivers of occupational stress and workforce fatigue are critical public health priorities required to ensure the sustainability of primary care, maintain the continuity of preventive services, and safeguard equitable population health outcomes. Full article

Background/Objectives: Fear of missing out (FoMO) describes the concern of missing out on a rewarding experience, a contemporary psychological phenomenon that has yet to be explored in relation to addictive eating. This exploratory study examined the relationship between FoMO and addictive eating, and the effect of reward-related eating and mental health status (anxiety, depression, and stress) on the relationship. Methods: A sample of 227 adults (mean age 49.4 years; 79.3% women) completed an online survey to assess addictive eating (Yale Food Addiction Scale), FoMO (Fear of Missing Out Scale), reward-related eating (Reward-Based Eating Drive Scale), anxiety, depression, and perceived stress (GAD-7, PHQ-8, PSS-4). Mediation and moderated mediation analyses were performed to determine relationships between variables. Results: A direct relationship between FoMO and addictive eating was found. The relationship was partially mediated by reward-related eating after accounting for BMI and gender. Anxiety severity was a significant moderator of the relationship between reward-related eating levels and addictive eating symptoms. Conclusions: This study provides insights that can assist in informing interventions to mitigate the negative effects of FoMO on eating behaviours, particularly among populations vulnerable to anxiety. Full article

To address the bottlenecks of low sample efficiency and poor control accuracy in traditional single-layer reinforcement learning during autonomous driving overtaking, this paper proposes an overtaking decision and control system based on hierarchical reinforcement learning to decouple complex tasks in spatial and temporal dimensions. A heterogeneous two-layer architecture is constructed, where the upper layer adopts the Proximal Policy Optimization algorithm to generate macroscopic discrete decisions, while the lower layer employs Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient combined with Long Short-Term Memory to achieve smooth continuous control of steering and acceleration by perceiving temporal features of dynamic obstacles. A composite reward mechanism, integrating hard safety constraints and soft efficiency incentives, is designed to balance safety, efficiency, and comfort. Experimental results in complex scenarios with multiple interfering vehicles and random lane-changing behaviors demonstrate that the proposed system improves the training convergence speed by approximately 30% within 500,000 steps compared to single-layer algorithms. In tests across varying traffic densities, the system achieves a 98.3% success rate in medium-density scenarios with a collision rate of only 0.6%. In high-density challenges, the success rate remains above 95%, with the collision rate reduced by about 80% compared to baseline models. Furthermore, the lateral control deviation is strictly limited to within 0.2 m, and the longitudinal safety distance remains stable above 5 m. This system provides a robust, high-efficiency paradigm for autonomous overtaking. Full article

Background/Objectives: The present investigation examined whether perceived stress statistically mediated the association between food insecurity and diet quality, as well as maladaptive eating behaviors (i.e., reward-based eating, comfort eating). Methods: Study 1 used cross-sectional data from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study (N = 624), in which Black and white women completed self-report measures of food security, perceived stress, diet quality, and reward-based eating. Study 2 used cross-sectional data from a census-matched U.S. sample by age, gender, income, race/ethnicity, and census region (N = 1993), with self-report measures of food security, perceived stress, and comfort eating. Mediation analyses tested the indirect effect of perceived stress on associations between food insecurity and diet quality, reward-based eating, and comfort eating, controlling for sociodemographic factors. Results: In Study 1, food insecurity was positively correlated with perceived stress (r = 0.30) and negatively correlated with diet quality (r = −0.11). Perceived stress mediated the relationship between food insecurity and higher reward-based eating (indirect effect = 0.14, 95% CI [0.08, 0.22]) but did not mediate the association between food insecurity and diet quality (indirect effect = −0.04, 95% CI [−0.11, 0.03]). In Study 2, food insecurity was positively correlated with perceived stress (r = 0.42) and comfort eating (r = 0.19). Using a two-part mediation model, perceived stress mediated the association between food insecurity and the frequency of comfort eating among individuals who reported at least one day of comfort eating, with the strongest indirect effect observed among food-insecure individuals (conditional indirect effect = 0.75, 95% CI [0.49, 1.13]). Conclusions: Across two cross-sectional studies, higher perceived stress statistically mediated the relationship between food insecurity and two forms of maladaptive eating behaviors, suggesting that perceived stress is an important correlate of these relationships. Future work is needed to further evaluate the causal relationships between these constructs. Full article