Search Results (433)

The sustainable development of university safety governance is an important component of the national security management system and also serves as a fundamental safeguard for protecting the life and health of students and staff on campus. The improvement of university safety risk governance relies on analyzing the identification of various safety risks and maintaining an effective crisis management process for potential sudden safety risks. The 24Model and the 4R model have respectively demonstrated strong analytical advantages in the fields of accident causation analysis and emergency crisis management; however, few studies have examined the internal relationship between them. This study attempts to integrate the 24Model and the 4R crisis management framework to propose and analyze a 2-4-4R model for university safety risk management. Through a case study, the model is applied to analyze a laboratory explosion accident at a university. The results show that the risk factors leading to campus safety accidents can be analyzed from four aspects: safety culture, safety management system, individual factors, and unsafe acts and physical conditions. University safety management should comprehensively identify these four types of factors and propose governance measures sequentially from the four stages of reduction, readiness, response, and recovery in order to improve safety management capacity. The case analysis confirms that the 2-4-4R model has applicability and practical value in the identification and governance analysis of university safety risks. It provides a systematic research perspective for the identification and management of safety risks in universities, and is of great significance for promoting the sustainable development of universities. Full article

The effect of alcohol on health is a controversial topic when it comes to the moderate or conscious consumption of fermented beverages. The recent claim by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Heart Network (EHN) that the safe level of alcohol consumption is zero has compromised the efforts of the fermentation scientific community in developing healthier and more sustainable beverages. Therefore, the objective of this review was to assess the scientific background for such a claim that appears to be the result of recent scientific evidence. Using the meta-analytic data supporting WHO and EHN guidelines, it was possible to demonstrate that fermented beverages (e.g., wine and beer) have lower effects compared to spirits, that some population ethnicities have higher sensitivity to alcohol, and that drinking patterns influence the outcomes. Moreover, higher relative risks associated with younger individuals are mostly related to injuries (e.g., car accidents, self-inflicted injuries) and not with diseases. Sequential WHO studies produced significantly higher limits and emphasized that preventive policies should be tailored to populations at higher risk. In conclusion, the statement that “all alcohol is hazardous” has no scientific background and should be understood under the perspective that “one drink is too many and one thousand is never enough” used in alcoholism prevention. Fermentation researchers should continue their efforts on the promotion of healthier lifestyles, sustainable development and on the preservation of cultural heritage under the responsible drinking perspective. Full article

This study examines how ethical leadership promotes employees’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through a sequential mechanism of Trust in leadership and organizational commitment, and whether this process differs across national contexts. Survey data were collected from SME employees in Pakistan (n = 102), India (n = 70), and Taiwan (n = 96). Using a multi-group partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach with bootstrapping, we test direct, indirect, sequential mediation, and moderation effects linked to national culture (collectivism) and institutional support. Results show that ethical leadership has a positive direct effect on CSR engagement and an additional indirect effect via Trust in leadership and organizational commitment. The strength of these relationships varies across the three countries, underscoring the importance of cultural and institutional conditions when translating leadership ethics into CSR-oriented behaviors. The findings extend CSR micro foundations in SMEs and offer actionable guidance for leadership development and policy support in emerging and advanced economies. Full article

Background/Objectives: Stigma and fear related to human immunodeficiency virus persist in healthcare settings and negatively influence professionals’ attitudes and the quality of care provided to people living with human immunodeficiency virus. This study aimed to evaluate knowledge, attitudes, and stigma toward people living with human immunodeficiency virus among healthcare professionals in Spain and to explore strategies to reduce stigma. Methods: An explanatory sequential mixed-methods study was conducted. In the quantitative phase, an online questionnaire based on the International Planned Parenthood Federation instrument was disseminated nationwide through social media using non-probability convenience sampling. Quantitative data from 1013 healthcare professionals were analyzed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests (Kruskal–Wallis, chi-square, Friedman) with appropriate corrections for multiple comparisons. In the qualitative phase, 12 participants were purposively selected for semi-structured interviews to explain quantitative findings. Qualitative data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Integration occurred through joint interpretation and a joint display table connecting quantitative patterns with qualitative themes. Ethical approval was obtained from the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Bellvitge Hospital in Catalonia. Results: A total of 1013 healthcare professionals from diverse specialties participated, and twelve completed qualitative interviews. Knowledge regarding transmission, prevention, and treatment of human immunodeficiency virus was high. However, more than half reported no specific training and felt unprepared to care for people living with human immunodeficiency virus. Despite knowledge, fear of contagion was common. Attitudes were positive, with acceptance of caring for people living with human immunodeficiency virus and rejection of common misconceptions. Qualitative findings revealed persistent stigma linked to insufficient training and cultural prejudice. Integration of quantitative and qualitative data revealed that knowledge alone does not eliminate fear, and that the gap between theoretical understanding and clinical confidence represents a critical barrier to stigma-free care. Conclusions: Although healthcare professionals in Spain demonstrate knowledge about human immunodeficiency virus, stigma and fear remain prevalent. Targeted education and interprofessional training are needed to ensure respectful, inclusive, and stigma-free clinical care. Full article

This qualitative research examines the systemic dynamics of the abuse of consecrated women in the Loyola Community, analyzing the allegations against the influential sacral artist and theologian Marko Ivan Rupnik within broader scholarly debates on abuse in Catholic ecclesial contexts. Drawing on survivor testimonies, the study explores how clericalism and forms of spiritual authority were instrumentalized within this specific community to produce a sequential chain of harm encompassing sexual, psychological, and spiritual violence against consecrated women. The analysis demonstrates how vulnerance—the systemic capacity to produce harm—is engineered through institutional configurations and theological distortions. This condition normalizes exploitation and silences survivors over extended periods. Moving beyond individual pathology, the study critically examines systemic power asymmetries, hermeneutical injustice, and forms of institutional betrayal that emerge when the protection of religious reputation takes precedence over accountability and human dignity. Finally, the article highlights the significance of public testimony and digital movements such as #NunsToo in disrupting cultures of silence and contributing to the restoration of epistemic justice for survivors. Full article

The engawa, a threshold space in traditional Japanese architecture, has been widely cited as the archetypal manifestation of Kurokawa’s grey space theory. However, prevailing interpretations treat it as a static prototype, overlooking the transformation of its spatial mechanisms across history. The present study addresses this lacuna through a comparative case analysis of three representative teahouses. The following three styles are examined in this study: the sixteenth-century sōan style, the early seventeenth-century samurai style, and the early seventeenth-century shoin-zukuri style. The evolution of the engawa’s mediating function is traced through these three styles. An analytical framework comprising five dimensions—boundary permeability, sequential flow, material tactility, integration of natural elements, and visual transparency—is applied consistently across all cases. The analysis demonstrates a discernible evolutionary trajectory, commencing with an inwardly contracting spiritual threshold in Myōki-an, progressing to an outwardly differentiating social interface in ma, and culminating in a meticulously crafted aesthetic artefact in Mittan. The present findings demonstrate that the engawa is not a fixed spatial prototype but rather a dynamic mediator whose form adapts to shifting social, cultural, and spiritual demands. The study posits that the essence of intermediary space does not lie in any specific configuration, but rather in its capacity to mediate between opposing realms, including self and nature, individual and society, and function and beauty. This reinterpretation provides a theoretical foundation for contemporary architectural practice, proposing that designers should prioritize diagnosing the relational challenges that intermediary spaces are designed to address, as opposed to merely imitating historical forms. Full article

In pronatalist societies where motherhood remains symbolically central to feminine identity, women’s well-being is shaped by gendered expectations surrounding reproduction. Within such contexts, understanding how different reproductive trajectories relate to marital and life satisfaction becomes particularly important. This study compared the marital and life satisfaction of mothers and voluntarily childless women in Türkiye, a pronatalist society. A sequential explanatory mixed-method design was employed. Quantitative data were collected from 178 employed married women (31 voluntarily childless, 147 mothers) using standardized life and marital satisfaction scales. This was followed by in-depth interviews with 22 participants (11 from each group). The quantitative findings indicated no statistically significant differences in marital or life satisfaction between the two groups. However, qualitative analysis revealed that comparable experiences of satisfaction were constructed through distinct normative pathways. Mothers derived fulfillment from culturally validated maternal identities despite increased responsibilities, whereas childfree women constructed satisfaction around autonomy, relational equality, and deliberate ethical choice within a pronatalist context. While voluntary childlessness broadens the repertoire of feminine identities, motherhood remains a powerful symbolic reference point for both groups. Rather than signaling the erosion of pronatalist norms, the findings suggest their ongoing renegotiation within contemporary Turkish society. These dynamics underscore the importance of addressing role-based stigma and supporting diverse reproductive choices in efforts to promote women’s psychological well-being and social equity. Full article

The present study investigates the potential of olive mill wastewater (OMW), supplemented with expired commercial glucose syrup, as a sustainable substrate for the submerged cultivation of Tuber spp. wild mushrooms. OMW contains considerable quantities of phenolic compounds, making it both a challenging pollutant and a promising nutrient source. To assess fungal performance under increasing phenolic stress, culture media were prepared with varying OMW concentrations (0–75% v/v on agar; 0–50% v/v in liquid media), while glucose was adjusted to ~30 g/L using expired glucose syrup. A sequential experimental approach was followed, beginning with Petri dish screenings on substrate/strain selection (measuring the mycelial growth rate; Kr, mm/day), progressing to 25-day shake flask fermentations and subsequently scaling up the most promising strain (Tuber mesentericum) in a controlled stirred-tank bioreactor. Throughout cultivation, substrate consumption (glucose, phenolics), pH evolution and decolorization were evaluated, while the resulting biomass was analyzed for polysaccharides, β-glucans, proteins, lipids, fatty acids, antioxidants, phenolic acids and triterpenoids content. Results showed that increasing OMW concentration enhanced tolerance and metabolic activity in selected Tuber species, with T. mesentericum exhibiting the highest resilience and achieving comparable or higher biomass yields in OMW-based media than in glucose (control). Phenolic removal exceeded 60% in flasks and 50% in the bioreactor, confirming simultaneous bioremediation capacity. Bioreactor cultivation demonstrated efficient substrate utilization and biomass production, while OMW-grown biomass presented high lipid content, enriched with unsaturated fatty acids, high β-glucan levels and increased antioxidant and phenolic profiles. Overall, this study demonstrates that OMW (supplemented with expired glucose syrup) can serve as a cost-effective and environmentally beneficial substrate for Tuber biomass production with dietary and antioxidant properties, offering an alternative source to mushroom carposomes, as well as supporting the circular bioeconomy strategies within olive oil processing industries. Full article

Terms are specialized words and expressions used in particular disciplines, cultures, or fields. They usually carry precise meanings and aim to describe referents accurately and clearly. Due to differences in culture, history, and other factors across countries, the development of indigenous Chinese linguistic terms plays a vital role in bridging cultural gaps and promoting the dissemination of Chinese culture. These terms not only explain specific words in Chinese and describe unique linguistic phenomena, but also embody the core concepts and academic traditions of Chinese linguistics, thereby contributing to the global spread and development of Chinese civilization. In order to achieve cross-linguistic dissemination of indigenous terms, we construct a linguistically informed bilingual corpus encompassing a broad spectrum of linguistic subfields, together with novel methods for the automatic extraction and cross-linguistic alignment of terminologies. The resulting corpus contains over 22,000 aligned sentence pairs across nine linguistic domains, providing a robust foundation for bilingual term mining. Building upon this resource, we further propose a multi-channel graph neural network (MCGNN) that jointly models semantic, syntactic, sequential, and co-occurrence relations, thereby enabling multi-perspective reasoning and achieving more accurate bilingual term extraction and alignment. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach substantially improves the accuracy and consistency of bilingual term extraction, alleviates the resource scarcity in the linguistic domain, and provides a solid foundation for future research and applications in cross-linguistic knowledge sharing and academic communication. Full article

Background/Objectives: Coping with death is an essential yet challenging aspect of nursing. In Ecuador, limited training and cultural factors may influence how nurses face the process of death and dying. This study aimed to explore nurses’ perspectives and highlight the degree of congruence between the numerical and discursive data provided by participants. Methods: A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design (QUAN → qual) using questionnaires and qualitative interviews was employed. The quantitative phase included 497 nurses who completed the Bugen Coping with Death Scale and the qualitative phase involved semi-structured interviews with 18 nurses. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively, while qualitative data underwent thematic analysis. Integration occurred at the methodological level—through the building of the qualitative data collection instrument—and at the levels of analysis and interpretation. Results: Nurses demonstrated moderate coping levels on the Bugen Coping with Death Scale. Although many reported being comfortable discussing death, qualitative data revealed substantial emotional distress and limited preparedness—particularly when facing their own mortality or the death of loved ones. Nurses expressed fear of suffering, sadness, and helplessness, especially when caring for dying children or young mothers. Communication with patients and families at the end of life emerged as a major challenge. Spirituality was identified as a key coping resource. Conclusions: Coping with death remains a complex and emotionally demanding process for nurses in Ecuador. Continuous education, emotional support, and training in spiritual and psychological dimensions of care are essential to strengthen nurses’ resilience and enhance the quality of care. Full article

The rapid expansion of global e-commerce platforms has led to unprecedented volumes of heterogeneous, multimodal, and continuously evolving data, creating significant challenges for prediction, personalization, trust, and operational decision-making. Deep Learning has emerged as a core enabling technology for addressing these challenges, offering powerful representation learning, sequential reasoning, graph-based inference, and decision-centric optimization capabilities. This survey provides a comprehensive and decision-oriented review of recent advances in Deep Learning for e-commerce, covering consumer behavior prediction, demand forecasting, recommendation systems, sentiment and review intelligence, catalogue understanding, fraud detection, cybersecurity, and large-scale operational optimization. Beyond predictive and personalization tasks, the survey emphasizes decision intelligence, highlighting the growing role of Reinforcement Learning and integrated Artificial Intelligence systems in pricing, logistics, warehouse automation, and platform reliability. We organize the literature according to key e-commerce objectives and operational contexts, analyze methodological trends and deployment challenges, and discuss limitations related to scalability, robustness, interpretability, and cross-border adaptability. Finally, we identify open research directions toward unified multimodal foundation models, culturally adaptive intelligence, and trustworthy, sustainable Artificial Intelligence systems for next-generation e-commerce platforms. Full article

Microfluidics-based preparation methods for cell-laden hydrogel microspheres are well-suited for large-scale comparative analysis of single or few cells. However, in existing studies, the preparation of cell-laden hydrogel microspheres and the cell culture process are typically separated, requiring the fabricated microspheres to be eluted and transferred from the preparation device to cell culture dishes or plates for cultivation. This transfer process can easily compromise sterility, while conventional cell culture methods consume more reagents and cause microsphere stacking, hindering single-cell observation and analysis. To address these issues, this paper presents an integrated microfluidic chip that sequentially enables droplet generation with cell encapsulation, gel droplet solidification, hydrogel microsphere trapping, and microsphere-based cell culture and analysis, facilitating the cultivation and observation of single or small numbers of cells. Integrating cell-laden microsphere preparation and 3D cell culture within a sealed chip structure reduces contamination risks associated with cell transfer, enables automation of multiple cell analysis workflows, and minimizes reagent and sample consumption. Using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with good gas permeability and processability as the chip material, biocompatible fluorinated oil was selected as the oil phase for microsphere preparation. A mild sodium alginate-calcium ion gelation system was employed, where calcium ions were released under acidic conditions after droplet generation to trigger solidification, yielding uniform hydrogel microspheres. Under optimized conditions, the single-cell encapsulation efficiency for test samples of human myeloid leukemia cells (K562) was 33.8% ± 1.8%, with a size uniformity coefficient of variation (CV) reaching 3.85%. Cells encapsulated within hydrogel microspheres were cultured in 286 on-chip independent cell culture chambers, achieving >95% viability after 24 h. Full article

Limosilactobacillus fermentum is a versatile heterofermentative lactic acid bacterium with significant potential to enhance the nutritional, functional, and sensory properties of plant-based foods. This review examines the biotechnological mechanisms and industrial applications of L. fermentum in fruit and vegetable fermentations, with particular emphasis on its strain-specific metabolic and technological traits. It synthesizes current knowledge on its taxonomic reclassification, key metabolic pathways, and strain-dependent capacity to biotransform phenolic compounds and mitigate anti-nutritional factors. Applications in vegetable fermentation include traditional products such as kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles, and fermented peppers, whereas fruit-based applications include berry juices, tropical fruits, and stone fruits. This review highlights the strain-dependent production of value-added bioactive metabolites, including γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), mannitol, and exopolysaccharides, and the demonstrated improvements in antioxidant capacity and mineral bioavailability through strategies such as selenium biofortification. Furthermore, industrial optimization strategies, such as starter culture development, process parameter optimization, and co-culture or sequential fermentation, have been evaluated. Current challenges and future perspectives for scaling up L. fermentum-based technologies are discussed, emphasizing the need for targeted strain selection, a deeper mechanistic understanding of metabolic regulation, and the standardization of industrial processes. Overall, this review provides a consolidated foundation for researchers and industry professionals aiming to harness selected L. fermentum strains to develop functional fermented foods with improved quality and health benefits. Full article

Historic towns serve as vital carriers of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, preserving unique historical memories. Quantitative analysis of their architectural facades is crucial for scientific conservation and cultural continuity. While existing studies predominantly employ qualitative descriptions or small-sample analyses, a systematic and replicable quantitative methodology remains elusive. To address this gap, this study innovatively proposes an integrated framework combining UAV oblique photogrammetric modeling, multivariate statistics, and spatial time series analysis. This framework aims to establish a methodological system for analyzing the morphological characteristics of building facades in historic districts. The study selected main streets from four ancient towns in the Chengdu Plain—Pingle, Anren, Xinchang, and Yuantong—and performed 3D reconstruction and morphological indicator extraction on 365 contiguous facade samples. Factor analysis was employed to reduce dimensionality, identifying three dimensions influencing facade morphology. Combined with cluster analysis for classification, the study systematically categorized four statistically significant and architecturally meaningful facade types. Furthermore, it quantified the sequential patterns and combination modes of street-facing distributions, providing crucial theoretical support and reference for the preservation, renewal, and sustainable development of ancient towns. Full article

The research paper explored the barriers hindering the effective transfer and retention of tacit knowledge in postgraduate supervision within South African higher education institutions (HEIs). Extant literature reveals significant challenges, notably the risk of tacit knowledge loss due to a shortage of postgraduate supervisors, high turnover rates, and an ageing demographic amongst these supervisors. The research employed a mixed-method explanatory sequential design, gathering survey data via questionnaires and qualitative insights through interviews with PhD holders serving as postgraduate supervisors at four selected South African HEIs. The survey’s reliability was confirmed with a Cronbach alpha of 0.8, and thematic analysis was performed using NVivo software, version 14. Barriers to tacit knowledge transfer in postgraduate education include cultural differences, silos, poor communication, red tape, insufficient resources, a lack of peer trust, job insecurity, inadequate leadership, rewards and recognition, organisational politics, limited informal interactions, and work overload. Addressing these issues is essential for enhancing the knowledge transfer and retention of tacit supervisory knowledge, thereby reducing knowledge stickiness in HEIs. Institutional barriers impacting the management of such risks and knowledge stickiness in the context of postgraduate supervision remain unexplored in the extant body of knowledge and practice. Full article