Search Results (7,599)

Background: Obesity among Saudi adolescents has risen sharply, yet whether school athletic participation is associated with students showing improved dietary habits and better anthropometric profiles compared to those of their non-athlete peers remains unclear. This study compared anthropometric indices and dietary habits between school athletes and non-athletes in Riyadh. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 124 male secondary school students (70 athletes and 54 non-athletes aged 16–17 years) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Athletes were defined as students who reported engaging in vigorous-intensity sport for ≥3 days/week for ≥60 min/session. BMI, body weight, and waist circumference were measured objectively. Dietary habit frequencies across ten food categories were assessed using the validated Arab Teens Lifestyle Study (ATLS) questionnaire. Independent samples t-tests and chi-square tests were used; effect sizes were calculated as Cohen’s d. A Bonferroni-corrected threshold (p < 0.005) was applied for multiple dietary comparisons. Results: Athletes had significantly lower BMI (23.64 ± 5.39 vs. 30.28 ± 7.25 kg/m²; p < 0.001, d = 1.06), body weight (p < 0.001, d = 0.93), and waist circumference (85.46 ± 12.61 vs. 95.50 ± 17.89 cm; p < 0.001, d = 0.66). Obesity prevalence was 15.7% among athletes versus 51.9% among non-athletes. Of ten dietary variables, only fresh fruit consumption showed a between-group difference (62.9% vs. 40.7% high-frequency; p = 0.010), which did not survive Bonferroni correction. Conclusions: School athletes demonstrated substantially better anthropometric profiles than their non-athlete peers, but dietary habit frequencies were largely similar across both groups. The high obesity prevalence among non-athletes underscores the need for school-based programs that combine structured physical activity with targeted nutrition education. Full article

University orientation programmes are a primary mechanism through which new students become familiar with campus facilities, academic spaces, and institutional procedures. However, many orientation activities are delivered as single in-person sessions, limiting opportunities for students to revisit spatial and procedural information after the event. To help address this constraint, a digital twin-inspired metaverse orientation application, the Digital Twin Metaverse Orientation (DTMO), was designed in Unity and hosted on Spatial.io as a spatially faithful virtual replica of a faculty environment. An exploratory pilot evaluation was conducted with 30 university students from multiple faculties after a facilitator-guided orientation session. The System Usability Scale (SUS), Net Promoter Score (NPS), and two open-ended questions were used to examine perceived usability, recommendation intention, and the reasons underpinning recommendation decisions. The application obtained a mean SUS score of 86.83, corresponding to an excellent perceived-usability rating, and an NPS of 53.33, indicating positive immediate recommendation intention. Qualitative responses suggested that participants valued the DTMO for engagement, accessibility, ease of navigation, and support for spatial familiarisation, while some participants emphasised that it should complement rather than replace physical orientation. These pilot findings indicate promising user reception in a small, guided-session sample, but they do not establish orientation effectiveness, learning transfer, wayfinding performance, retention, belonging, institutional integration, or sustained use. Further research with broader samples and outcome-based measures is therefore needed. Full article

The Graduate Student Evolutionary Algorithm (GSEA) has demonstrated promising optimization capability in several engineering tasks; however, its performance may deteriorate when dealing with high-dimensional and complex multimodal problems due to insufficient adaptive search behavior, weak diversity preservation, and stagnation during later optimization stages. To alleviate these limitations, this paper proposes a Multi-Strategy Improved Graduate Student Evolutionary Algorithm (MIGSEA) for numerical optimization and artistic image multi-threshold segmentation. First, an adaptive mentor-guided learning mechanism is introduced to dynamically regulate the influence of mentors and peers throughout the optimization process, enabling a more effective transition from global exploration to local exploitation. Second, an elite–random cooperative learning strategy is designed to combine high-quality solution guidance with stochastic perturbation, thereby improving population diversity and enhancing the ability to escape local optima. Third, a stagnation-aware local refinement mechanism is developed to activate adaptive neighborhood search when the optimization process becomes trapped, which further accelerates convergence and improves solution precision. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, MIGSEA is evaluated on the IEEE CEC2017 and CEC2020 benchmark suites and compared with 11 advanced metaheuristic algorithms under identical experimental conditions. Experimental results demonstrate that MIGSEA achieves competitive optimization accuracy, convergence speed, robustness, and statistical superiority in most benchmark functions. Furthermore, MIGSEA is applied to Otsu-based artistic image multi-threshold segmentation using multiple benchmark images with different threshold levels. Quantitative evaluation based on PSNR, FSIM, and SSIM, together with visual analysis, confirms that the proposed method can generate more accurate and visually consistent segmentation results than existing competitors. Overall, the proposed MIGSEA provides an effective and robust optimization framework for both benchmark optimization and practical image segmentation applications. Full article

Real-time assessment of reading comprehension remains a challenge in educational research. Traditional evaluation methods, such as questionnaires, provide delayed and retrospective measures and therefore do not capture the dynamic nature of comprehension during reading. This exploratory study investigates whether beta-band electroencephalography (EEG) activity can be used to estimate EEG-derived indicators related to reading comprehension during academic reading. The study included 40 university students who read a conceptually demanding scientific text while EEG signals were continuously recorded. Beta-band activity (13–30 Hz) was extracted from six cognition-related channels and segmented into non-overlapping 2 s windows. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied for dimensionality reduction, followed by kernel ridge regression (KRR) for prediction. At the window level, the proposed KRR–PCA framework achieved a mean absolute error (MAE) of 5.797, a root mean square error (RMSE) of 7.783, an MAE-based accuracy of 94.2%, and an explained variance of R² = 0.275 on a held-out test set. At the participant level, aggregated predictions showed a significant correlation with questionnaire-based comprehension scores (r = 0.59), indicating that EEG-derived features captured meaningful inter-individual differences. The framework also generated time-resolved prediction profiles that reflected fluctuations in EEG-derived comprehension estimates during reading. These findings suggest that beta-band EEG contains information related to reading comprehension and may support the development of future EEG-based educational monitoring systems. Further validation using larger cohorts and time-resolved comprehension measures is needed to confirm the practical applicability of the approach. Full article

This study analyzes formative research as a pedagogical resource for teaching scientific logic in higher education from a constructivist perspective. The purpose of the article is to examine how formative research contributes to the development of scientific reasoning, critical thinking, and analytical skills among university students through active, reflective, and contextually grounded learning processes. The study is an exploratory narrative/documentary literature review. The initial bibliographic search identified 105 scientific documents published between 2000 and 2025 in indexed databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, Taylor & Francis, MDPI, ResearchGate, Redalyc, and RENATI. After duplicates were removed and inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, 54 studies were selected for the final analysis. A two-way documentary analysis matrix was used to identify conceptual relationships among constructivism, reflection-in-action, mental representations, induction and deduction, and their contributions to scientific logic. The findings show that formative research strengthens scientific logic by promoting active knowledge construction, critical reflection, problem-solving, and argumentative reasoning. The contributions of Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner, Schön, and Fosnot demonstrate that scientific thinking develops through interaction, inquiry, contextualized learning, and reflective practice. Inductive and deductive reasoning were also identified as complementary mechanisms for developing analytical and interpretive competencies in university education. The study proposes that formative research should be considered a central pedagogical strategy in higher education because it facilitates the integration of scientific reasoning, reflective learning, and research-based teaching. Finally, an operational formative research program based on a holistic student development approach is proposed to foster scientific reasoning, intellectual autonomy, and the formation of more critical, reflective, and scientifically competent university students. Full article

Over the past decade, educators and administrators in higher education have taken steps toward improving accessibility in teaching and learning. Yet research on supporting students with disabilities in experiential pedagogies, such as community-engaged learning, remains limited, particularly regarding best practices for inclusive instruction. The present study addresses this gap by exploring the perceptions and experiences of students with disabilities in community-engaged learning opportunities, as well as the support mechanisms that may contribute to their meaningful participation in these experiences. Forty-three students with disabilities participated in this qualitative study. Drawing on focus groups, individual interviews, and written responses, the study identifies themes for more inclusive design and delivery, including clearly outlining the physical and digital demands of engagement activities well in advance, designing courses with flexibility in mind, protecting students’ privacy, and including an accessibility statement in the syllabus. While the thematic analysis offers practical recommendations for educators and administrators, aimed at reducing barriers and fostering meaningful participation, the study also advocates for greater theoretical engagement with the personal and relational dimensions of experiential education. Full article

This study investigates the readiness of future teachers in Romania to meet the requirements of inclusive education, with a specific focus on curricular deficits and student teachers’ perceptions of competence. Respecting the right to education for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) is a central policy commitment. Yet, the capacity of initial teacher education (ITE) programs to operationalize this mandate remains uncertain. Using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, the research combines a systematic documentary analysis of national regulations and psycho-pedagogical curricula (Orders No. 4139/2022 and 4524/2020; Law No. 199/2023) with a survey of 327 student teachers across eight universities. Systematic Content Analysis, based on a three-level depth protocol, reveals a structural curricular deficit: Level 1 outcomes (theoretical awareness of SEN and inclusion) appear in approximately 40% of compulsory subjects, whereas Level 2 outcomes (operational competence, such as designing adapted lessons or differentiated assessments) are almost completely absent from the mandatory core and are confined to electives. Survey results mirror this gap: although 81% of respondents anticipate working with pupils with SEN, 29.9% feel poorly or very poorly prepared, 25.5% report a lack of basic knowledge of SEN, and only 14.6% report high confidence in designing adapted activities. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) shows that training level has a statistically significant but small effect on technical inclusive skills (p = 0.043; η²_p = 0.013), while inclusive attitudes are mainly associated with age. The study concludes with a roadmap for reforming ITE through mandatory SEN-focused practicum placements and transversal integration of inclusive pedagogy. Full article

Generative artificial intelligence has emerged as a tool that can influence students’ ideation, development, and communication of design solutions. A quasi-experimental mixed-methods study investigated the application of three generative AI tools, specifically Vizcom, Krea.ai 1, and ChatGPT 4, to furniture design in an undergraduate interior design course offered at a private Jordanian university. This study sought to address a gap in region-specific AI tools for design education. Thirty-four third-year students completed both a manual design activity (pre-test) and a redesign activity with AI assistance (post-test) after structured training. Twenty-seven participants completed both activities and were included in the analyses. Experience was measured with the Creativity Support Index (CSI) and NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX); qualitative measures included open-ended questions and expert-juror ratings of the 27 resulting designs. Quantitative results were analyzed with descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests (SPSS v28). AI-assisted workflows significantly enhanced exploration (Z = −3.42, p < 0.001, r = 0.66) and approached significance for workflow efficiency (Z = −1.97, p = 0.049, r = 0.38). Students reported decreases in mental, time, and effort burden, while feelings of expressiveness and ownership remained. Jury experts concluded that 67.6% of students achieved improved outcomes using AI tools. Students experienced moderate frustration with prompt creation, tools operating in English, and AI’s inability to design intricate details. Generative AI can be most beneficial during the conceptual stages, enabling broader exploration and greater efficiency. With careful pedagogy and ethical discussion, students can use AI tools without losing ownership of their designs. Consideration for generative AI software implementation in interior design programs in Jordan and across the MENA region is provided. Full article

Chinese language practice, especially handwriting and typewriting practice, has always been a key method for mastering Chinese in Chinese L2 learning. However, current research on blended practice modalities that combine handwriting and typewriting remains insufficient. This study used a pilot study with 30 international students to compare the associative patterns of handwriting practice and blended practice (a sequential multimodal practice wherein handwriting instruction was followed by typewriting) on students’ Chinese skills performance, Chinese learning motivation, and attitude. Results indicated that students using the blended practice were associated with significantly better Chinese skills performance, as well as higher levels of motivation and more positive attitudes compared to those using only handwriting. Exploratory path analysis identified a notable direct association between practice modality and Chinese skills performance; however, the pathways through motivation and attitude were not statistically detectable. These findings suggest that Chinese language teachers may consider designing lessons that incorporate this sequential blended practice, which may support improvements in L2 Chinese performance, motivation, and attitudes. Furthermore, second language learners should actively apply this practice modality to improve their Chinese L2 learning performance. Full article

Rural adolescents face persistent health inequities driven by limited access to preventive health education, intergenerational engagement, and resources that support lifelong wellness. This study evaluated the effectiveness of Active Aging for L.I.F.E., a school-based intergenerational health literacy program, in improving adolescents’ attitudes toward aging and health. The four-session program, delivered through a train-the-trainer model involving older adults and undergraduate students, was implemented in three rural schools during the 2024–2025 academic year. A total of 86 junior high and high school students participated, with 77 completing pre- and post-program surveys assessing attitudes toward aging, health consciousness, and intergenerational engagement. Paired t-tests and multiple regression analyses examined overall program effects and differences by sex/gender and age group. Students demonstrated significant improvements in aging attitudes, perceived relevance of aging topics, enjoyment of intergenerational interaction, and awareness of health-promoting behaviors across the lifespan. Several baseline sex/gender and age-based gaps in health-related perceptions were reduced following participation, with stronger future-oriented attitude shifts observed among younger adolescents. These findings suggest that brief, scalable intergenerational interventions embedded in rural school settings can support early prevention, health literacy, and community capacity building, offering a promising strategy for advancing rural public health outcomes across the life course. Full article

Engineering education plays a critical role in preparing future engineers to address sustainability challenges, which can be taught through diverse pedagogical approaches. This paper explores how active learning approaches, project-based learning and design-based learning can foster a holistic understanding of sustainability through an interdisciplinary engineering project, which aimed to design a solar-powered robotic system developed for environmental (ENVIBOT) monitoring of air, water, and soil quality. First, the study presents a technical description of the design. Subsequently, semi-structured reflective questions were used to capture students’ perceptions of sustainability, problem solving, interdisciplinary collaboration, and professional responsibility. As such, this study adopted a qualitative case study approach in which thematic analysis of the reflections revealed that participation in an interdisciplinary project enabled students to move beyond a narrow environmental interpretation of sustainability. The findings suggest that combining design projects with a standalone sustainability course may further strengthen students’ awareness. Students also demonstrated increased awareness of systems thinking, real-world constraints, and the societal role of engineers in promoting sustainable solutions. Projects such as the ENVIBOT can not only serve as effective pedagogical tools to enhance students’ understanding of sustainability concepts, but can also act as platforms for developing technical competence, maturity and professional responsibility. These findings highlight the potential of integrating sustainability more effectively into engineering curricula and practice alike. Full article

This study investigates how AI-assisted plagiarism changes dishonest academic behavior in a socially interactive learning environment under different educational conditions. To this end, this study develops a scenario-based simulation to examine how AI-assisted plagiarism influences dishonest academic behavior in socially interactive learning environments. The model represents students as autonomous agents embedded in local peer networks who adapt their weekly behavior under academic pressure, institutional intervention, and available cheating options. Two behavioral scenarios are considered: a conventional plagiarism environment, in which agents choose between honest submission and direct copying, and an AI-augmented environment, in which AI-assisted plagiarism is introduced as an additional dishonest strategy. Intervention is modeled through environmental and institutional conditions, specifically detection probability and sanction severity, rather than through direct internal reward manipulation. Q-learning is used as a simplified adaptive mechanism for repeated agent choice. Experimental results show that the possibility of producing and assessing a simulation to see the availability of AI-assisted plagiarism substantially changes the behavioral composition of misconduct by increasing total dishonest behavior and shifting a large share of it toward the AI-assisted category. In the simulation, active intervention reduces dishonest behavior overall but does not eliminate AI-assisted plagiarism as the dominant dishonest strategy in the AI-augmented environment. These observations in the simulation suggest that academic misconduct in the AI era should be understood not only as a problem of deterrence but also as a problem of behavioral adaptation under changing technological and institutional conditions. To support the realism assessment of the simulation design, the study also conducts a structured qualitative plausibility review using multiple large language models under a shared prompt. Across these reviews, the model is judged to be acceptable as a first-stage stylized baseline, while important limitations are identified in agent heterogeneity, social influence depth, and the use of Q-learning as a simplified adaptive heuristic to reproduce the behaviors of actors in there. Full article

This article analyses trading-performance patterns in a stock market simulation conducted with 134 second-year students at the University of Mons (Belgium) on 11 December 2025. Participants had a virtual capital of 100,000 euros and were free to trade CAC 40 securities without any restrictions on the number or volume of transactions. An academic incentive scheme, combining a participation bonus and bonuses for the three best portfolios, created a tournament-style environment with continuous ranking feedback. This feature is considered as part of the experimental context rather than as a separately identified causal mechanism. We estimate a quadratic model linking performance to activity, measured by the number of mean-centered transactions to reduce the collinearity between the first-degree term and its square, and control exposure via the average percentage of cash in the portfolio, portfolio variability (measured as the standard deviation of portfolio value) and the average trade size. Breusch–Pagan and White tests indicate heteroscedasticity, justifying a robust inference. The results highlight a convex relationship between activity and performance: the marginal association is initially negative but becomes positive above a model-implied upper-tail level corresponding to approximately 46 transactions. This value should not be interpreted as a behavioral level or as a trading rule. The percentage of cash in the portfolio and the average trade size are negatively associated with performance, while the portfolio variability does not show a statistically significant association with performance. Overall, the results indicate heterogeneous trading patterns rather than a single activity–performance profile. Full article

Life satisfaction (LS) is an important indicator of subjective well-being among college students. However, relatively few studies have integrated variable-centered and person-centered approaches to examine the associations among physical activity (PA), social support (SS), and LS in female college students. This cross-sectional study surveyed 2097 female college students from 11 universities in Jiangxi Province, China. PA, SS, and LS were assessed using self-report questionnaires. A mediation model was used to examine whether SS statistically mediated the association between PA and LS after controlling for education level and place of origin. Latent profile analysis was then conducted using six LS items, and the BCH method was used to compare PA and SS across profiles. The results showed that PA was positively associated with SS and LS, and SS was positively associated with LS. The indirect association between PA and LS through SS was statistically significant, suggesting a partial statistical mediation pattern. Latent profile analysis identified three level-based LS profiles: low-, medium-, and high-LS profiles. PA and SS increased progressively across these profiles, with the highest levels in the high-LS profile and the lowest levels in the low-LS profile. These findings suggest that PA, SS, and LS are closely interrelated and that meaningful quantitative heterogeneity exists in LS among female college students. Given the cross-sectional design and convenience sampling, the findings should be interpreted as statistical associations rather than causal effects. Full article

Background and Objectives: Chronic nonspecific neck pain (NSNP) is among the most common musculoskeletal disorders. Global postural re-education (GPR) might be effective in decreasing neck pain (NP) and dysfunction and improving forward head posture (FHP) by recovering muscle chains and reducing postural alteration. Deep neck flexor activation (DNF) might also decrease NP and improve FHP by improving DNF endurance. This study aimed to compare the effects of GPR versus DNF activation on pain, dysfunction, FHP, and DNF endurance. Materials and Methods: Forty-six physiotherapy students with chronic NSNP participated in this non-randomized comparative study and were allocated into two equal groups based on their availability and preference regarding session duration. Group A underwent GPR exercises combined with active neck exercises, whereas group B received DNF activation in addition to active neck exercises. All participants were assessed pre- and post-intervention for pain intensity using a visual analog scale (VAS), neck disability using the Arabic version of the neck disability index (NDI), FHP via a photometric method with Kinovea software, and DNF endurance using pressure biofeedback. Results: A significant effect of both treatments was reported on reducing pain intensity, improving the FHP and enhancing the neck functional status with no substantial differences between both groups. A significant improvement in DNF endurance was observed in both groups, with substantially higher values between groups in favor of the DNF group. Conclusions: Both GPR and DNF activation exercises were associated with reductions in pain and improvements in neck disability among physiotherapy students with chronic NSNP and FHP. Also, both CVA and DNF endurance improved, with more improvement observed in DNF endurance in the DNF group compared with the GPR group. Full article