Search Results (273)

Recent Italian developments in end-of-life governance have intensified debate on self-determination, medically assisted suicide, and the constitutional limits of healthcare regulation. This article is a narrative review combined with doctrinal legal analysis and medico-legal commentary. It examines Tuscany’s Regional Law No. 16 of 14 March 2025 within the broader Italian framework shaped by Law No. 219/2017, Constitutional Court Judgment No. 242/2019, and the subsequent constitutional review culminating in Judgment No. 204/2025. The article pursues three aims: to reconstruct the national legal framework governing end-of-life decision-making in Italy; to analyse the structure and constitutional implications of the Tuscan statute; and to assess the medico-legal relevance of the persistent uncertainty surrounding life-sustaining treatments as an eligibility criterion. The analysis highlights two distinct but interconnected issues: the constitutional boundary between regional healthcare organisation and matters requiring nationally uniform safeguards, and the unresolved interpretation of life-sustaining treatments in clinical and legal practice. In light of Judgment No. 204/2025, the article argues that regional procedural intervention may reduce administrative uncertainty, but cannot replace coherent parliamentary legislation capable of clarifying substantive criteria, limiting territorial variability, and reinforcing the role of palliative care within end-of-life pathways. Full article

A Jeffersonian model of civic education supports robust civic engagement while differing in important respects from prevailing paradigms of community-embedded learning that prioritize activism. Rather than emphasizing participation alone, Jefferson’s approach to the development of civic awareness foregrounds reasoned speech, civil discourse, and the cultivation of practical judgment informed by theoretical understanding. Central to this model is Jefferson’s insistence that civic education is primarily a local and state responsibility, grounded in a broader commitment to self-government. Jefferson’s account reflects an appreciation for human reason as a universal capacity that makes consent and civic deliberation possible. Reason, so understood, provides the foundation for political equality and for an account of human flourishing articulated most clearly in the Declaration of Independence and consistent with core claims of the natural law tradition. This framework supports a conception grounded in metaphysical equality and civic friendship, best expressed within a federal political order, and capable of sustaining what classic sources and contemporary initiatives describe as a “pervasive commitment to diversity—as well as unity”. Further contributing to the novelty of our argument, we show that Jeffersonian natural-law-inflected civic engagement resonates well into the 20th century. Important judicial decisions, educational initiatives, and policy recommendations—including Cook v. McKee, Education for American Democracy (EAD), and the Truman Commission Report—draw upon related concepts of civic formation, consent, and reasoned participation. Jefferson’s emphasis on “reasons in speech,” understood as an essential element of self-government, thus remains a necessary and underappreciated contribution to contemporary debates over civic education and engagement. Full article

The use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in organizational contexts has grown rapidly, particularly in project management activities. Despite this expansion, a relevant methodological gap can be observed in the literature: the absence of psychometrically validated instruments capable of measuring the acceptability of these technologies prior to their effective adoption, especially in project-oriented governance contexts. Traditional technology adoption models predominantly focus on a posteriori assessment of individual use, providing limited support for prospective analyses that inform strategic decision-making and organizational coordination mechanisms. In response to this gap, this study aims to develop and validate a psychometric scale to indirectly measure the acceptability, through outcome beliefs and with behavioral predispositions serving as structural proxies of the latent construct of LLM use by project management teams, with a focus on a priori judgments that precede the effective adoption of the technology. The initial scale, composed of 17 items, underwent content validation and was administered to a sample of 154 project management professionals. The latent structure was examined through Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses, resulting in the refinement of the instrument to 13 items distributed across two correlated factors. The results indicate that LLM acceptability is adequately represented by a bidimensional structure comprising the dimensions Intention/Predisposition and Trust/Perceived Benefit, both demonstrating high internal consistency and good statistical fit, and nomological validity evidenced by significant associations with respondents’ self-reported LLM usage frequency. These findings reinforce the conceptualization of acceptability as a prospective and multidimensional construct, relevant for supporting governance decisions and the adoption of artificial intelligence-based technologies in project-oriented organizational systems. The indirect measurement approach adopted here is theoretically grounded in the premise that a priori acceptability is not directly observable but is constituted by cognitive and dispositional beliefs formed prior to use. Full article

With the increasing adoption of electric vehicles (EV), congestion at charging stations during peak hours has become a prominent issue, imposing significant pressure on station scheduling. Furthermore, the large-scale integration of photovoltaics (PV) introduces dual uncertainties in both generation and load, negatively impacting grid voltage. To tackle the above problems, a strategy for demand response balancing and congestion alleviation of charging stations under grid–road network partition mapping is proposed in this paper. Firstly, a user demand response capability assessment method based on the Fogg Behavior Model is proposed to evaluate the demand response potential of individual users in each zone. The results are aggregated to obtain the demand response participation capability of each zone, thereby realizing capability-based allocation and achieving demand response balancing. Secondly, the road network is divided into several zones and mapped to the power grid, and a two-layer cross-zone collaborative autonomy model is established. The upper layer aims to alleviate inter-zone congestion and balance inter-station power, taking into account the grid voltage level. A tripartite benefit model involving the power grid, charging stations and users is constructed, and an inter-zone mutual-aid model for the upper layer is established and solved optimally. The lower layer establishes an intra-zone self-consistency model, which subdivides different functional zone types within the road network zone, allocates and accommodates the cross-zone power from the upper-layer output inside the zone, and synchronously performs intra-zone cross-zone judgment to avoid congestion at charging stations. Simulation verification is carried out on the IEEE 33-bus system. The results show that the proposed method can effectively alleviate the congestion of charging stations, the balance degree among all zones is increased by 43.58%, and the power grid voltage quality is improved by about 38%. This study offers feasible guidance for exploring large-scale planned participation of electric vehicles in power system demand response. Full article

Safety monitoring in container hoisting operations within rail-road intermodal logistics parks is a critical task in industrial safety management. Such scenarios are characterized by complex environments, large variations in target scales, deformable object shapes, and frequent occlusions, which pose significant challenges to visual perception systems. Conventional single-task models suffer from inherent limitations in handling low recall rates for distant small targets and insufficient adaptability to geometric deformations, making them inadequate for high-precision, real-time safety warning applications. To address these challenges, this study proposes a unified visual analysis framework that integrates semantic segmentation and object detection to enhance the recognition performance of small and deformable targets in complex operational environments, enabling real-time perception and safety warning of key objects and hazardous regions within container yards. Specifically, we introduce FSD-YOLO, a fusion-based architecture composed of the following key components. First, a SegFormer-based semantic segmentation module is employed to achieve pixel-level delineation of different operational regions. Second, an improved object detection network is developed based on the YOLOv8n architecture, incorporating: (1) the integration of C2f modules in the shallow layers of the backbone to enhance high-resolution feature extraction; (2) the embedding of C2fDCN modules within the detection head to improve modeling capability for deformable objects via deformable convolution; (3) the adoption of CARAFE upsampling operators to optimize multi-scale feature fusion; and (4) a dynamic loss-weighting strategy for small objects, where loss weights are adaptively adjusted according to target area to increase training emphasis on small-scale targets. Finally, a decision-level fusion strategy is applied to combine segmentation and detection outputs, enabling real-time safety judgment based on semantic rules. Experimental results on a self-constructed container yard dataset demonstrate that the proposed detection model achieves an mAP50-95 of 0.6433 and an mAP50 of 0.9565, significantly outperforming the baseline YOLOv8n model (mAP50-95: 0.5394, mAP50: 0.8435), thereby validating the effectiveness of the proposed framework. Full article

This study aimed to examine the differences in self-compassion (SC) subcomponents between anorexia nervosa (AN) subtypes, the restricting type (ANR) and binge-eating/purging type (ANBP), with a focus on perceived isolation and self-judgment. This retrospective exploratory study included 40 patients with AN at a Japanese tertiary hospital. The participants completed the Self-Compassion Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire. Between-group comparisons were conducted using t-tests, and logistic regression was used to examine associations with the AN subtype. Compared with the ANR group, the ANBP group was older at the time of assessment, had a longer illness duration, and showed significantly more depressive symptoms, more severe eating pathologies, and lower SC scores. Specifically, patients with ANBP had significantly higher scores on the negative SCS subscales of self-judgment and isolation, indicating greater self-criticism and perceived isolation. In logistic regression analyses adjusting for the EDE-Q mean score, higher isolation scores were significantly associated with the ANBP subtype (odds ratio = 3.28, 95% confidence interval: 1.37–9.63, p = 0.01). In this exploratory sample, perceived isolation was more prominent in ANBP and may reflect affective and interpersonal difficulties related to this subtype. These findings should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating and warrant replication in larger (ideally multi-site and longitudinal) samples. If replicated, targeting these self-compassion dimensions may inform the development of subtype-sensitive interventions. Full article

This study examines offline acceptance and online processing of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in the Spanish of Catalan–Spanish bilinguals in Catalonia. Both languages evidence DOM, though prescriptive grammars claim only partial overlap. Empirical research on Catalan DOM within these bilinguals reveals differences in distribution. Based on these factors, along with sustained bilingualism at the community and individual levels, more optionality was predicted for the distribution of Spanish DOM. Results from an offline scalar Acceptability Judgment Task and a Self-Paced Reading Task reveal three important findings. First, each task revealed distinct distributions. Participants aligned more with prescriptive grammars for DOs that are high on the animacy and definiteness scales in the offline task and were more tolerant of greater variability with the same DOs in the online task, possibly indicating weakening of the obligatory DOM constraint in these contexts. Second, geographic area modulated acceptance of the absence of DOM with animate DOs, suggesting microvariation. Third, unmarked inanimate DOs were preferred across both tasks. Overall, the results are interpreted as revealing divergence from prescriptive descriptions of Peninsular Spanish DOM system. Full article

Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) is increasingly discussed as a potential supplement to climate-change mitigation, yet public and stakeholder judgments remain sensitive to knowledge, framing, and perceived risks. We examined how a structured university classroom module on SRM reshaped student perceptions using a matched pre–post survey design. Participants were students enrolled in an English-taught global climate change course (N = 106); 103 students provided valid matched responses after applying pre-specified exclusion rules. Self-rated SRM knowledge increased substantially after the module (mean change +0.47 on a 1–3 scale; Wilcoxon signed-rank p (Holm-adjusted) < 1 × 10⁻⁷; Cohen’s dz = 0.67). Support for SRM research remained moderately positive but did not increase (pre mean 3.76 to post mean 3.54 on a 1–5 scale). In contrast, support for stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) deployment declined (pre mean 3.42 to post mean 2.95; p (Holm-adjusted) = 0.0084; dz = −0.33), and preferences shifted away from prioritizing climate intervention toward low-carbon development (mean change −0.68 on a 1–5 priority scale; p (Holm-adjusted) = 0.0001; dz = −0.45). Post-lecture models indicated that perceived benefits versus risks was the most consistent correlate of support across outcomes. Open-ended responses most frequently emphasized feasibility, unintended consequences, governance, and moral hazard. Overall, students largely endorsed SRM research as valuable while becoming more cautious about deployment and political prioritization, suggesting that balanced, structured instruction can sharpen sensitivity to evidence, uncertainty, and potential trade-offs that students also weighed in the survey. Full article

Background: Professional identity and ethical integrity are foundational to nursing practice and are shaped in part by educational experiences. This study evaluated an online Holocaust and genocide educational seminar delivered to fourth-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students and explored how students linked seminar content to professional identity formation, ethical vigilance, and patient advocacy. Methods: We conducted a descriptive mixed-methods educational evaluation. Students completed an anonymous pre-seminar survey (demographics, motivations for studying nursing, self-identified desirable professional qualities, and self-rated knowledge of the Holocaust and other genocides) and an anonymous post-seminar feedback survey with four open-ended questions. Quantitative items were summarized descriptively; qualitative data were analyzed using inductive qualitative content analysis. Results: Of the 205 students who attended the seminar, 133 completed the pre-seminar survey, and 110 completed the post-seminar survey. Students reported high baseline knowledge of the Holocaust but limited knowledge of the Armenian and Rwandan genocides. The five themes that emerged are as follows: (1) ethical judgment and the influence of nurses; (2) patient advocacy and social justice; (3) the effect of historical and contemporary trauma on students’ learning experience; (4) genocide awareness and prevention; and (5) approaches to education and content presentation. Conclusions: Carefully facilitated Holocaust and genocide education, delivered through interactive online pedagogy and structured debriefing, may support late-stage nursing students’ reflection on ethical integrity and professional identity during the transition to professional practice. Full article

Creativity involves generating ideas that are both original and useful, relying on intertwined cognitive and metacognitive processes. We examined how individual differences in semantic memory structure and ideation fluency predict creative performance and self-evaluations across two studies. In Study 1, participants completed a creative problem-solving (CPS) task, with semantic memory networks estimated from a relatedness judgment task. Creative output was assessed for originality and usefulness, alongside participants’ self-evaluations. In Study 2, a within-subjects design compared participants’ output and self-evaluation of their performance in a divergent thinking task (alternative uses task) and CPS. Results revealed that ideation fluency and semantic memory network integration consistently predicted originality across tasks. In contrast, usefulness was less reliably predicted, showing task-specific associations with semantic memory network properties primarily in CPS. Importantly, self-evaluations often diverged from objective outcomes, reflecting metacognitive biases shaped by heuristic cues. These findings highlight both stable and context-sensitive mechanisms in creative performance and self-evaluation. Full article

This study investigates gender differences in conceptual understanding, confidence, and calibration among 369 Turkish university students completing the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). Using accuracy scores, confidence ratings, and bias indices as complementary measures, we examined how male and female students differed in both their conceptual reasoning and their self-evaluative judgments. The results show that male students achieved significantly higher accuracy scores than female students (M = 56.79 vs. 49.96), though the effect size was small, indicating modest conceptual differences. Confidence differences were more pronounced: male students reported substantially higher confidence (M = 68.17) than female students (M = 54.44), representing a moderate effect. Bias scores further revealed that male students exhibited greater overconfidence (M = 11.38), while female students were more likely to underestimate their performance (M = 4.47). Item-level analyses showed that gender differences were concentrated in well-documented areas of conceptual difficulty, including Newton’s first law and gravitation. These patterns align with international findings and suggest that gender differences in physics arise from a combination of conceptual challenges and metacognitive tendencies rather than large performance disparities. The findings highlight the importance of integrating confidence calibration, reflective metacognitive practices, and targeted conceptual support into introductory physics instruction to reduce gender-based differences in learning outcomes. Full article

Background/Objectives: Family caregivers play a central role in the provision of long-term home-based care and often provide unpaid support over extended periods. This role is associated with substantial psychological, physical, social, and financial burden. Despite high support needs, access to psychosocial services remains limited for many family caregivers. Against this background, AI-based care companions are discussed as a potential low-threshold supplement to existing support structures. The objective of this study was to explore subjectively perceived family caregiver burden and to examine expectations, acceptance conditions, and concerns regarding a hypothetical AI-based care companion, rather than to evaluate effectiveness. Methods: An exploratory mixed-methods study was conducted using an anonymous online survey. Perceived family caregiver stress was assessed using self-developed, non-validated ordinal items, including a single-item global burden rating and categorical stress domains. The questionnaire combined closed-ended items (Likert-scale and multiple-choice) with one open-ended question to assess perceived stress, experiences with psychosocial support, and attitudes toward a hypothetical AI care companion. Participants were recruited via an online caregiving course platform. Data collection was voluntary and anonymous and took place in Germany between October and November 2025. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively and exploratorily, and qualitative responses were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Fifty-five family caregivers participated in the survey. Overall, perceived family caregiver burden was high, with psychological stress most frequently identified as the dominant stress domain. Difficulties in accessing psychosocial support were reported by 58% of the respondents. Willingness to consider using an AI-based care companion varied by degree of acceptance: 36% reported clear willingness, 31% expressed conditional or tentative willingness, and 33% indicated reluctance or rejection. The most frequently selected expected functions included emotional support, early detection of overload, and caregiving-related information. Data protection, professional reliability, and concerns regarding incorrect advice were identified as the most relevant perceived risks. Conclusions: The findings reflect family caregivers’ perceived burden and anticipated needs, highlighting persistent gaps in psychosocial support. From the perspective of respondents, a hypothetical AI-based care companion could represent a complementary support option if it provides personalized, non-judgmental, and reliable assistance. These results describe perceived potential and acceptance conditions, not verified efficacy. Further research, including prototype development, usability testing, and pilot studies, is required to examine feasibility, ethical implications, and real-world impact. Full article

This study investigates how South Korean meditation teachers conceptualize core professional competencies in digitally delivered and AI-mediated contemplative contexts, addressing a gap in prior research that has emphasized effectiveness and technological scalability over teachers’ own understandings of authority and professionalism. Using Q methodology, the study identified shared subjective meaning structures among 21 certified meditation teachers in South Korea. From 133 competency-related statements derived from academic literature and practitioner sources, a 33-item Q sample was developed and analyzed through by-person factor analysis. The analysis revealed four distinct perception types of meditation teaching competencies: 1. Embodied Practice-Grounded, prioritizing the depth of personal meditative practice; 2. Relational Presence-Grounded, emphasizing intersubjective attunement between teacher and practitioner; 3. Pedagogical Judgment-Grounded, focusing on the strategic integration of theory and coaching practice; and 4. Ethical Self-Reflection-Grounded, centering on ongoing moral reflexivity and inner examination. The findings indicate that, in the face of AI-driven automation, meditation teaching competence is perceived not as a set of technical skills or digital literacy, but as a “way of being” rooted in the triadic integration of ethical self-awareness, relational presence, and embodied practice. Furthermore, the study suggests that in AI-mediated contemplative environments, professional competence in AI-mediated contemplative environments is defined less by technological adoption than by ethical discernment and responsibility for non-delegable aspects of guidance, advancing a practitioner-centered account of spiritual authority in the era of artificial intelligence. Full article

Perinatal loss affects 23 million pregnancies worldwide each year, representing a painful experience that disrupts expectations and impacts emotional, physical, social, and spiritual well-being. This cross-sectional observational study assessed symptoms of anxiety, depression, self-judgment (self-criticism, isolation, over-identification), and shame in women who experienced perinatal loss, as well as their predictive value for psychopathology. Participants were 501 women, divided into five groups according to time since loss: 0–6 months, 7–18 months, 19–30 months, 31–42 months, and more than 43 months. Findings showed that women 7–18 months post-loss reported the highest psychopathology levels, with significant differences in anxiety. Isolation and shame were the strongest predictors of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Although symptoms decreased over time, they remained elevated years after the loss. These results underscore the lasting psychological impact of perinatal loss and the importance of sustained recognition, assessment, and intervention to support women’s mental health. Full article

Art theory suggests that the pleasure of art appreciation stems from resolving uncertainty, yet empirical support for this idea remains limited. To address this gap, we conducted three studies (N = 1127), providing empirical evidence for the Aesthetic of Reception theory. Our findings reveal that reducing uncertainty enhances art appreciation and alleviates boredom, with meaning-making being the most effective strategy (Study 1). Specifically, meaning-making alignment with the artist’s intent leads to more favorable judgments for artworks with low-to-moderate uncertainty. Conversely, highly uncertain paintings are more appreciated when viewers create self-relevant narratives (Study 2). Furthermore, the relationship between uncertainty reduction and aesthetic experience is mediated by the satisfaction of certainty needs (Study 3). These findings suggest that viewers should actively and creatively fill the uncertainty in artworks through meaning-making, fulfilling their need for certainty and transforming uncertainty to a rewarding aesthetic experience while reducing boredom. Overall, our research validates the Aesthetic of Reception theory and offers valuable insights for aesthetic education, encouraging deeper engagement with uncertain artworks. Full article