Search Results (488)

Background: General ability and verbal–performance organisation are established features of Wechsler batteries, while the diagnostic value of subtest profile types remains contested. We examined whether ten WISC-R subtests in a large clinical referral sample contained reproducible profile-based groups beyond the overall cognitive level. Methods: Ten WISC-R subtests from 1261 children in a single-centre child psychiatry archive were analysed using principal components, parallel analysis, an orthogonal bifactor model, Gaussian mixtures with multiple covariance structures, k-means, level-free profile analyses, and 500 subsample stability replications. Results: The first component accounted for 50.4% of the variance and correlated with Full-Scale IQ (r = 0.997). The second accounted for 11.0% and closely tracked PIQ-VIQ (r = 0.942); the parallel analysis retained only the first component. A bifactor model showed a strong general factor (omega-hierarchical = 0.814; explained common variance = 0.767). Raw-score k-means produced a reproducible higher-versus-lower level split (mean Full-Scale IQ 101.4 vs. 71.6; silhouette = 0.261), but, after removing the general level, the full- and equal-covariance mixture models selected one class, and forced k-means solutions had silhouettes of 0.08–0.12. Conclusions: Within the ten WISC-R variables examined, no clearly separated profile-based subtypes were detected beyond graded differences in the general level and verbal–performance balance. These findings concern the internal structure of one battery in one clinical referral sample and do not establish the absence of clinically meaningful subtypes defined by broader functional measures. Full article

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) owes its pungency, odour and most of its attributed bioactivity to a single reaction system: the conversion of the odourless precursor alliin into the thiosulfinate allicin when tissue is disrupted. Because allicin is absent from the intact clove, unstable in aqueous and thiol-containing media, and undetectable in plasma after consumption, the composition of any garlic preparation is governed by its processing history, and the electrophilicity of the thiosulfinate group determines which products survive. The review is organised around the alliin–alliinase–allicin system, not the plant itself. A measured allicin value is defined by the method that produced it. Extraction strategy, quantification platform, validation and reporting basis set the result as much as the sample does. Measured allicin must be distinguished from allicin potential. Assessed against the requirement of chemical definition, the reported biological, agricultural, food-preservation and nanomaterial applications rest on largely preclinical evidence, and often on materials never chemically characterised. The principal obstacle to comparability is the absence of a harmonised reference procedure for allicin quantification, not a shortage of biological observations. This review identifies the analytical and processing advances required to convert garlic from a raw commodity into reproducible, standardised ingredients. Full article

Background/Objectives: Whether a unilateral posterior occlusal alteration produces bilateral temporomandibular joint (TMJ) changes, and how imaging findings relate to tissue-level alterations, remains incompletely characterised. This study aimed to characterise the bilateral TMJ response to a sustained unilateral posterior occlusal alteration in rats using longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and endpoint histological and histomorphometric assessment. Methods: Twenty-eight female Wistar rats were allocated to an experimental group (n = 12), a baseline control group (n = 4) and an age-matched control group (n = 12). Light-cured composite resin was applied to the three right maxillary molars of experimental animals and maintained for 16 weeks. Baseline MRI was obtained from the separate 8-week control group, whereas experimental and age-matched control animals underwent bilateral MRI at 16 and 24 weeks of age. Cartilage and disc structure, thickness and cell density were assessed histologically at the endpoint. Results: MRI demonstrated a progressive bilateral response. At 24 weeks, 11 of 12 experimental animals showed bilateral joint-space narrowing; condylar flattening affected 9 of 12 TMJs on each side, and reduced disc size was present in all experimental TMJs. Histology and histomorphometry showed a more intense ipsilateral response, with cartilage and disc thickening, loss of normal cartilage organisation and reduced cell density. Contralateral tissue architecture remained preserved, although disc thickness was greater than in age-matched controls. Conclusions: Unilateral posterior occlusal alteration produced a bilateral but asymmetric TMJ response: imaging abnormalities progressed in both joints, while tissue remodelling was most pronounced ipsilaterally. The combined findings support early load-related degenerative remodelling and show that unilateral occlusal disturbance can affect both TMJs to different degrees. Full article

Teacher creativity plays a central role in fostering creative learning environments. However, most evaluations of creativity training focus on performance outcomes and self-report measures rather than changes in underlying cognitive organisation. We examined PRE–POST differences in Austrian secondary-school teachers’ creative performance, semantic organisation, and professional mindsets during an eight-month certified teacher-training course based on the Scientific Creativity in Practice (SCIP) framework. Seventeen teachers completed PRE and POST assessments, including the Alternative Uses Task, Verbal Fluency, Word–Sentence–Construction, Behavioural Forma Mentis associations with valence ratings, and written reflections. We assessed AUT originality using two independent AI-based systems. Semantic and affective PRE–POST differences were examined using cognitive networks, mindset streams, and measures of emotional framing. At POST, teachers had higher AUT originality scores and generated concepts that differed substantially from those at PRE. They produced broader conceptual repertoires and larger semantic networks, although other structural changes differed across tasks. Affective changes were more modest. Positive valence predominated at both measurement points and became slightly more common, while negative valence declined. Separate PRE and POST mindset streams showed substantial pathway turnover but remained predominantly positive. Because the study lacked a control group and used the same tasks and cues at PRE and POST, these findings cannot be attributed specifically to SCIP. Rather, they illustrate how cognitive network analyses can complement traditional creativity assessments by revealing PRE–POST differences in semantic organisation and professional mindsets that are not captured by performance scores alone. Full article

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has become an important tool for the digital documentation of historic buildings, particularly where irregular geometries and restricted spaces limit conventional survey methods. This study develops and applies a TLS-based Scan-to-HBIM workflow for the documentation of La Casa de la Alquimia, a thirteenth-century domestic heritage building located in the Judería of Córdoba, within the UNESCO-listed historic centre. The workflow integrates TLS data acquisition, scan registration and cleaning, AI-assisted point-cloud classification, expert-led HBIM reconstruction, and deviation-based geometric validation. The results show that the TLS dataset supported the reliable reconstruction of a complex medieval domestic building. The AI-assisted classification tool was used as a practical support mechanism for organising dense point-cloud data before modelling, improving the visual separation of architectural elements and reducing repetitive manual filtering, while final modelling decisions remained dependent on expert interpretation. Deviation analysis showed a close correspondence between the HBIM geometry and the surveyed point cloud, with higher local deviations mainly associated with exposed stone masonry, curved transitions, and inherent historic deformations. HBIM-based renderings and a scan-based virtual tour were also produced as complementary outputs for spatial interpretation. The study indicates that a TLS-based Scan-to-HBIM workflow, supported by AI-assisted classification and geometric validation, can provide a reliable and transferable methodological reference for documenting comparable domestic heritage buildings under constrained real-world conditions. Full article

This case study research provides unique insight into mixed construction and demolition waste generated through the construction of a secondary school project and, moreover, provides actual site data that is rare within published literature. A deterministic prediction model is subsequently developed to accurately forecast the cumulative waste generated to enable project teams to better forecast, manage and reduce site waste generated. A combination of pragmatism and interpretivism is utilised as the overarching epistemology, and deterministic bivariate models are adopted to predict waste production over time. An embedded mixed-method case study is then undertaken within the case study organisation. Model performance is assessed using Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) as a metric that characterises forecasting accuracy. A focus group consisting of a cross-section of the project team is convened to share data analysis results and accrue reasons for the waste trends observed and how these can be reduced moving forward. Emergent research results identify peaks of waste generation caused by upfront packaging brought to site and unforeseen ground conditions that increased the project’s expected waste produced. Secondary waste data collected from the case study project was used to generate a polynomial regression model which accurately predicted (producing a MAPE of 13.1%) waste year-on-year for the project over a 27-month period using only a one-year data set. The research also delves into the concept of circular economy (CE) and the theory of reduce, reuse and recycle and illustrates how packaging is a major cause of waste on a modern construction site. This novel research provides a useful future predictive model for waste generation, providing insight to project stakeholders who seek to reduce the waste produced during the construction of a secondary school project. Modelling waste generation rates accurately over repeated projects could allow benchmark measures to be developed and implemented to guide practitioners on whether excessive waste is being generated and what controls could be implemented to reduce it. Case study findings presented also provide a unique insight into real-world waste generation data. Full article

Africa remains the most under-addressed continent on the planet, with an estimated 60–70% of streets and dwellings lacking formal, standardised addresses. This deficit has profound consequences for governance, emergency response, e-commerce, logistics, and the daily lives of over 1.4 billion people. We present a hybrid graph-theoretic and machine learning framework for automated address generation, trained on high-quality open data from three European cities (Stuttgart, Paris, and Bern) and progressively adapted to seven African cities (Kigali, Dakar, and Kampala as training cities; Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Kinshasa, and Lagos as unseen test cities). The framework models street networks as primal and dual graphs, applies the Intersection Continuity Negotiation algorithm for stroke detection, and deploys four supervised classifiers for connectivity error detection, road type classification, building-to-street assignment, and address quality scoring. Building footprints are fused from three complementary sources (OpenStreetMap, Google Open Buildings, Microsoft Building Footprints) and augmented with SRTM elevation data and the World Settlement Footprint 3D (WSF 3D) dataset. Across ten study cities, the pipeline produces 3.2 million merged building footprints, 467,000 street edges, and 880,464 quality-scored addresses, and a five-version iterative improvement cycle reduces the EU–Africa address quality gap by 54.2%. To validate African address outputs independently, we construct a cross-validation database of 1000 verifiable addresses of known organisations across the seven African cities; cross-validation achieves a geometric match rate of 79.6% within 100 m and 83.5% within 150 m. The system is implemented as an open-source QGIS plugin and ArcGIS Toolbox. Full article

Paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), potent neurotoxic alkaloids produced by marine dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria, pose severe risks to human health through contaminated seafood and water after absorption into the bloodstream. Current detection methods are limited by matrix interference or ethical concerns. Here, we report a novel screening approach using vanadium pentoxide as an oxidant to convert PSTs into characteristic oxidation products, followed by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS) analysis. Under optimized conditions, vanadium pentoxide oxidizes both hydroxylated and non-hydroxylated toxins into distinct major products (P1–P7), identified by high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem high-resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC–HRMS). Vanadium pentoxide oxidation affords excellent product selectivity and, for most PSTs, superior signal intensities, enabling unambiguous differentiation of toxin subgroups. HPLC–MS/MS method in MRM mode was developed and yielded detection limits of 0.3–1.5 ng/mL for a broad spectrum of fourteen PSTs in spiked plasma, accuracy of 89.3–102.2%, and excellent repeatability with intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations (RSDs) ranging from 0.3% to 10.4%. Application of the method to samples from the First Trial OPCW (the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) Biotoxin Proficiency Test successfully identified STX/neoSTX, confirming its practical utility for trace PSTs detection in complex biological matrices. Full article

Background/Objectives: Nuclear morphology and chromatin organisation provide quantifiable imaging features that may serve as candidate biomarkers of cellular state. However, many cellular imaging studies analyse multiple cells from the same microscopy field without explicitly accounting for their hierarchical dependence, which may lead to optimistic estimates of model performance. This study developed a hierarchy-aware AI framework to investigate DAPI-derived nuclear phenotypes in human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs). Methods: A six-day fluorescence microscopy dataset was processed using marker-controlled watershed segmentation, automated quality control, morphology and masked chromatin-texture analysis. Multiple deep-learning, transfer-learning, multiple-instance learning, and self-supervised approaches were evaluated. The final dataset contained 154 quality-controlled nuclei from 51 source FOVs. The primary prediction task was the binary classification of operationally defined Early (Days 1–3) versus Late (Days 4–6) experimental timepoint groups from DAPI-derived nuclear images. Primary evaluation used nested five-fold FOV-grouped cross-validation with three random seeds, preventing nuclei from the same FOV from appearing in both training and test sets. Results: For the primary Early-versus-Late timepoint classification task, the prespecified ViT-B/16 model achieved 52.9% accuracy, an F1-score of 0.571, and a ROC-AUC of 0.586. Among secondary full-time-course models, hybrid morphology-gated attention multiple-instance learning achieved the highest accuracy (58.8%) and F1-score (0.644), while frozen-ViT neural pooling achieved the highest ROC-AUC (0.614). In the secondary Days 1–2 versus Days 5–6 extreme-timepoint analysis, the DINOv2 multi-view model achieved 76.7% accuracy, an F1-score of 0.741, and a ROC-AUC of 0.765. FOV-balanced resampling produced similar ROC-AUC estimates for the primary ViT (0.583) and DINOv2 (0.750) analyses. Nuclear area showed the largest FOV-level effect ($d=0.59$, $p=0.0406$, $q=0.442$), with none of the 12 imaging descriptors significant after Benjamini–Hochberg correction. Conclusions: DAPI-derived nuclear phenotypes showed a detectable but heterogeneous time-associated imaging signal, with stronger discrimination between more widely separated timepoints. These findings represent candidate imaging signatures rather than validated diagnostic biomarkers. The framework provides a hierarchy-aware approach for prioritising nuclear imaging features for future biological and translational validation. Full article

Urban regeneration increasingly uses tourism scenario activation to renew heritage, public space and local economies. Yet the production of urban attractiveness can intensify tourism gentrification, commercial reorientation and the erosion of ordinary urban life. This critical integrative review synthesises diverse perspectives from urban regeneration, touristification, tourism gentrification, place branding, speculative and platform urbanism, liveability, publicness and collaborative governance, integrating them into a coherent conceptual framework through an abductive and integrative process of conceptual development. A second-phase structured verification search in Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection produced 5954 search occurrences and 3865 unique records after deduplication, which were used to test literature coverage, conceptual boundaries and counterarguments. The review formalises touristic desirability as the relational and institutionally organised value logic through which anticipated visitor-oriented attention, experience and value shape what becomes visible, investable, programmable and materially actionable. It develops urban cohabitation as an evaluative criterion centred on the joint viability of heterogeneous urban lives, uses and claims under transformation, and cohabitation-oriented governance as the intervention-oriented component identifying capacities through which tourism-oriented trajectories can be anticipated, shaped and redirected. Four operations of desirability, eight interdependent dimensions of cohabitation and four governance capacities are consolidated through cross-domain comparison. The review concludes that tourism-led regeneration becomes inclusive when visitor orientation strengthens, rather than narrows, the conditions through which cities remain habitable, plural and collectively governable. Full article

This study found that inclusive school leadership shaped early career teachers’ (ECTs’) professional belonging, but its influence depended on whether leaders’ relational intent was supported by the organisational conditions in which it was enacted. Inclusive leadership was understood as the relational and structural practices through which leaders foster voice, psychological safety, and equitable access to support. This study adopted an instrumental case study design, situated in an Australian primary school. Semi-structured interviews with five ECTs were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, from which four themes were identified. Relational signalling from the principal shaped whether ECTs felt safe to voice uncertainty. Leadership functioned as emotional co-regulation in demanding moments, though its sustainability varied. Organisational routines produced a hidden curriculum through which ECTs learned when belonging was conditional. In high-stakes situations, guided participation actively drew ECTs into professional community practices. These findings suggest that sustaining ECT belonging requires attention not only to leaders’ relational practices but to the organisational conditions, including workload and role design, that determine whether those practices can be sustained over time. Full article

Governments increasingly use processing-time indicators to evaluate development assessment, although comparability across councils is uncertain. This study examines how application composition, determination pathways, recorded workflows and information practices affect council-level comparisons in Greater Sydney, Australia. The analysis links NSW Online Development Assessment Data API metadata to council tracking portal histories across 12 councils between January 2023 and April 2026. It compares application portfolios, processing durations and determination routing, maps events to five stages, and evaluates recording practices. It is found that median processing durations ranged from 53 to 153 days; higher application volumes were not consistently associated with longer processing. Portfolios differed by proposed use, limiting comparisons of aggregate timeframes. Recorded workflows varied, with referrals and internal review representing recurrent coordination pressures rather than a uniform bottleneck. These findings extend research on differentiated policy implementation; common statutory rules do not necessarily produce comparable administrative performance measures. Processing time is a composite governance outcome shaped by case mix, institutional routing, recorded workflows and administrative visibility. Aggregate benchmarks should therefore serve as screening signals. Although numerical findings are context-specific, this analytical argument is relevant to decentralised regulatory systems in which local organisations implement common higher-level rules. Full article

This article examines the dual-brokerage regimes governing Vietnamese labour migration to South Korea, situating migration governance within broader debates on Asian capitalism and developmental state transformations. Drawing on the Employment Permit System (EPS) as a paradigmatic case of state-led migration management, we analyse how public brokerage mechanisms—embodied in Vietnam’s Department of Overseas Labour (DOLAB) and licensed sending organisations—intersect with private intermediaries to shape migration pathways. The analysis reveals structural tensions between Korea’s developmental state ambitions to regulate low-skilled labour flows and Vietnam’s export-oriented migration regime, where private brokers extract substantial fees from aspiring migrants. These tensions are amplified in new growth industries—care work, manufacturing, agriculture, and construction—where labour demand intersects with gendered migration patterns and debt-financed mobility. We argue that the Vietnam–Korea migration corridor exemplifies a distinctive form of ‘brokerage capitalism’ within Asian migration governance, where state institutions and private actors co-produce regulatory spaces that simultaneously facilitate and exploit migrant workers. The article contributes to scholarship on Asian capitalism, migration brokerage, and developmental state theory by demonstrating how migration governance reflects broader patterns of variegated capitalism in East and Southeast Asia. Full article

Paradoxically, whilst historic Environment, Culture, Heritage, and Arts (ECHA) organisations curate knowledge for the public, thousands of them lack the required operational knowledge to manage their rapidly changeable and demanding operations. Their management requires extensive up-to-date knowledge, in accessible recorded formats (knowledge artefacts) interacting with human experience. For decades, the ecosystem of interdependent ECHA organisations, here presented as ECHAsystem [EE-kah-siss-tuhm], has been in a protracted crisis resulting in reduction of service for, and closures of, thousands of these organisations. The purpose of this cross-sectional, parallel mixed methods applied research was to develop a beneficial operational knowledge curating design to improve the ECHAsystem’s organisational sustainability in the United Kingdom. Data derived from 40 interviews and 270 questionnaires, focusing on the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Greece. The findings demonstrated that accessible and up-to-date knowledge significantly improves processes and organisational sustainability performance. Furthermore, a wise, allied development of knowledge resources produces the greatest results. The research proposed the Athena [ah-thee-NAH] design: a Knowledge Alliance coordinating the Operational Wisdom Library (OWL), informed by 31 networks across the ECHAsystem’s habitats and operations. The research advocates a unified ECHAsystem benefiting from collaborative application of knowledge to deliver its public-good, intergenerational, organisational sustainability objectives. Full article

Background: Occupational violence is a significant threat to paramedic safety, psychological wellbeing, workforce sustainability, and continuity of care. Existing prevention approaches often emphasise individual behaviour and de-escalation, with less attention to the organisational, operational, and encounter-level conditions through which violence risk develops. Objective: This integrative review synthesised evidence on occupational violence prevention in paramedicine and used the findings to develop the Paramedic Occupational Violence Systems Model (POV-SM), an evidence-informed conceptual framework for Australasian ambulance services. Methods: Whittemore and Knafl’s five-stage integrative review method was used to identify, evaluate, and synthesise evidence published between January 2008 and March 2026. Seventy-eight sources, including qualitative and epidemiological studies, intervention evaluations, systematic reviews, standards, and selected organisational evidence, were analysed using thematic synthesis and systems mapping. A subsequent translational synthesis mapped the identified determinants and interventions across system levels and stages of prevention. Results: Five evidence streams identified interacting determinants of occupational violence: system demand and workforce conditions; operational and information-system factors; encounter-level and environmental dynamics; intervention and technology considerations; and governance, reporting, and organisational-learning requirements. These findings informed the POV-SM’s interconnected domains of upstream determinants, operational triggers, encounter dynamics, downstream consequences, and system controls. Evidence-to-framework mapping was then used to identify potential prevention and implementation considerations. Conclusions: The review indicates that occupational violence in paramedicine is produced through interacting system conditions and is unlikely to be adequately addressed through isolated individual-level interventions. The POV-SM offers an evidence-informed structure for organising multilevel prevention, but it has not yet been empirically validated. Stakeholder assessment, feasibility testing, pilot implementation, and prospective evaluation are required before its effectiveness can be established. Full article