Search Results (4,386)

This study aimed to examine the impact of online social support on sleep quality and the potential roles of psychological resilience and digital literacy in this relationship. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 606 university freshmen from a college in Hengyang City, Hunan Province, China, using cluster random sampling. Data were collected using the Online Social Support Questionnaire, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI; note that higher PSQI scores indicate poorer sleep quality), Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, and Domestic College Student Digital Literacy Assessment Scale. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 27.0, with mediation effects tested via the PROCESS macro. The analytical results demonstrated that online social support showed a significant negative predictive effect on the sleep quality of university freshmen (β = −0.11, p < 0.01); psychological resilience exhibited a suppression effect (i.e., opposing direct and indirect effects) between online social support and sleep quality; and digital literacy moderated the first half of the mediation pathway (β = 0.18, p < 0.001). Collectively, this study shows that online social support directly harms sleep quality but indirectly benefits it by enhancing psychological resilience. Digital literacy serves as a key moderator that amplifies this beneficial indirect effect. These findings provide significant theoretical and practical insights for developing campus health promotion initiatives. Full article

Corporate sustainability has emerged as a critical strategic imperative for organizations seeking to mitigate their environmental impacts amid escalating climate pressures and growing stakeholder demands. This study examines corporate strategies aimed at reducing environmental footprints—including circular economy models, energy efficiency measures, and digitalization—and investigates how young adults perceive and evaluate corporate sustainability commitments, with particular emphasis on greenwashing skepticism. A cross-sectional quantitative survey was administered to 150 university students and young professionals aged 18–25 years in Spain. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and linear regression to examine the influence of prior sustainability knowledge, academic background, age, and sectoral context on perceived corporate sustainability commitment, greenwashing perception, and willingness to consume sustainable products. The findings reveal that prior sustainability knowledge significantly and positively predicts higher evaluations of corporate environmental commitment, while age and academic background—particularly among students in Economics and Business—are associated with heightened greenwashing skepticism. Perceived corporate sustainability commitment is found to exert a significant positive influence on sustainable consumption intention, and production-intensive sectors are consistently perceived as more environmentally harmful than service-oriented industries. These findings underscore the importance of transparent, credible, and verifiable sustainability strategies in building legitimacy and trust among younger generations, and contribute to the growing literature on stakeholder perceptions of corporate environmental responsibility. Full article

This study aims to provide insights into how physical activity is associated with sleep patterns in youth populations, in particular, Slovak adolescents, and how gender (boys vs. girls) and age (≤16 vs. ≥18) moderate this relationship, using an extreme-group comparison approach that excludes 17-year-olds to enhance contrast between developmental stages. Using a cross-sectional design, self-reported data were collected from 2504 (100%) high school students (aged 15–19; 45.6% boys, 54.4% girls) using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Participants aged 17 years were excluded from age-stratified analysis to create clearer separation between early/mid and late adolescence. The primary outcome was global sleep quality (PSQI > 5). Secondary outcomes included sleep duration and PSQI component scores. All other analyses (age- and gender-stratified comparisons and interaction models) were predefined as exploratory and hypothesis-generating to examine potential effect modification. Age-stratified analyses among girls showed that, within the low PA group, good sleep was reported by 37.7% of younger girls (≤16) and 28.6% of older girls (≥18). Among older girls, the proportion reporting good sleep increased to 49.8% in the high PA group (χ² = 29.16, p < 0.001). No consistent associations between PA and sleep quality were observed among boys; however, significant association was identified among younger boys (≤16 years), which was not observed in older boys. Logistic regression revealed a modest interaction between age and PA level in predicting sleep quality among girls (β = 0.346, p = 0.049), suggesting small age-dependent variation in the association. This effect should be interpreted cautiously given its borderline statistical significance. Component-level PSQI analyses showed that girls experienced higher rates of sleep disturbances (χ² = 91.40, p < 0.001), longer sleep latency (χ² = 26.71, p < 0.001), and greater daytime dysfunction (χ² = 79.90, p < 0.001). These findings provide region-specific evidence from Central and Eastern Europe and underscore the need for age- and gender-sensitive public health strategies targeting both physical activity promotion and better sleep outcomes, given their observed associations. Full article

Background: Spirituality and religious diversity are increasingly recognized as essential components of holistic nursing care in global healthcare systems. However, their integration into undergraduate nursing education remains heterogeneous and often insufficiently structured, creating a gap between professional values and students’ preparedness to address spiritual needs in culturally diverse clinical environments. This study aimed to explore nursing students’ perceptions, attitudes, and perceived competencies regarding spirituality, religion, and spiritual care. Methods: A descriptive exploratory survey was conducted on a sample of 69 third-year nursing students (69.6% female; majority aged ≤24 years) enrolled in two universities in Rome, Italy. Data were collected between May and July 2025 using the Nursing Care and Religious Diversity Scale (NCRDS), consisting of 31 items. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, internal reliability analyses, group comparisons, and multivariate regression models. Results: Students showed moderate levels of attention to patients’ spiritual needs (mean = 3.11, SD = 0.88) and integration of spirituality into care practice, while high importance was attributed to spiritual care skills. University education was perceived as only partially adequate. Multivariate analyses showed that students’ personal spirituality is positively associated with the assessment of spiritual needs and the perception of competence, while exposure to contexts characterized by greater religious diversity is associated with a lower perception of preparedness. Conclusions: The results highlight a discrepancy between professional values and perceived operational skills, suggesting the need to systematically integrate spirituality and religious diversity into nursing curricula. These findings highlight the need for a structured integration of spirituality and religious diversity into nursing curricula through targeted educational strategies in order to strengthen students’ competencies and promote truly holistic and person-centered care. Full article

This study examines the effects of a three-month pedagogical intervention that integrated artificial intelligence (AI), social media, and web-based tools to strengthen digital literacy, creativity, and cultural participation among secondary education students in Ecuador. The intervention was theoretically grounded in perspectives of inclusive digital education and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), emphasizing participation, accessibility, and collaborative knowledge construction. The intervention involved 61 students supported by 31 university facilitators and was developed under a mixed-methods action research design with a pre–post (quasi-experimental) approach. Pre- and post-test surveys were administered to assess changes in digital competencies and creativity, while semi-structured interviews explored students’ perceptions of creative expression and their engagement with the cultural and technological ecosystem. Quantitative results showed statistically significant improvements in digital literacy and creativity (p < 0.001), while qualitative findings evidenced increased student empowerment, critical awareness of algorithms, and active cultural participation. The integration of AI and social media promoted an inclusive, student-centered learning environment that enhanced autonomy, reflective thinking, and media engagement. These results suggest that hybrid and culturally contextualized AI-mediated interventions may foster 21st-century competencies, strengthen digital equity, and promote creative agency in educational contexts of the Global South, particularly within emerging digital learning environments in Ecuador. Full article

This study investigated the effects of computer-assisted writing on the written language production of secondary school students with Specific Learning Difficulties (SLD), particularly dyslexia. Writing is a complex cognitive process requiring the coordination of spelling, lexical retrieval, syntactic organization, transcription, and revision, areas in which students with SLD often experience persistent difficulties. The study compared handwritten and computer-based texts produced by 40 students with SLD and 20 students without learning difficulties using a counterbalanced design, with an interval of approximately two weeks between the two writing sessions. In the handwriting condition, students used printed reference materials, whereas in the computer-based condition they had access to general-purpose digital tools, including spell-checkers, electronic dictionaries, online resources, and word-processing software. Written texts were evaluated using the Spelling Accuracy Index and holistic scores assigned by independent raters. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests (Mann–Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests). The findings revealed statistically significant improvements in favor of computer-based writing for both groups, with particularly strong gains among students with SLD. Computer-written texts demonstrated higher spelling accuracy and received higher evaluation scores, indicating improved performance in the assessed writing outcomes. The findings suggest that computer-assisted writing may support written language production in secondary school students with SLD, particularly in relation to spelling accuracy and overall text evaluation, and may offer a useful avenue for more inclusive writing instruction. Full article

Background: Accurate estimation of water and energy requirements is fundamental for establishing dietary reference values in young adults. However, evidence integrating objectively measured energy expenditure with detailed water turnover components remains limited in Chinese populations. Objectives: To quantify water intake, water loss, and energy expenditure in healthy young college students, and to examine how energy metabolism is associated with specific components of water turnover under free-living conditions. Methods: Twenty-one healthy adults aged 18–25 years participated in a 14-day observational study conducted in Beijing, China. Total energy expenditure (TEE) was measured over 14 days using the doubly labeled water (DLW) method. Physical activity was monitored over 7 consecutive days using a triaxial accelerometer. Water intake was assessed using multiple methods: water from beverages (including plain drinking water and other beverages) was recorded over 7 days using 24 h fluid intake records, while water from food was measured during days 5–7 using weighed food records combined with duplicate portion and direct drying methods. Urinary and fecal water loss were quantified using 24 h collections conducted during days 5–7. Metabolic water production and insensible water losses were estimated using established physiological equations. Multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between energy-related variables and components of water turnover. Results: Mean total daily water intake was 3023 mL, with water from beverages accounting for 54.1%, water from food for 36.7%, and metabolic water for 9.1%. Mean total daily water loss was 1931 mL, predominantly from urinary excretion (81.0%). DLW-measured TEE averaged 2018.6 kcal/day and was higher in males than in females. Most regression models examining total water intake and beverage-derived water were not statistically significant, and no consistent associations were observed between these variables and total energy intake, TEE, or PAEE. In contrast, TEE was positively associated with metabolic water production and respiratory water loss (both p < 0.001). Significant associations with total energy intake were observed for water from food and fecal water loss (both p < 0.01), whereas other water intake components showed no significant associations. Conclusions: In young adults, energy metabolism appears to be more closely associated with physiologically regulated components of water turnover than with voluntary water intake. These findings suggest a divergence between endogenous and behaviorally regulated pathways of water turnover and highlight the importance of considering component-specific water dynamics when examining hydration and energy balance, although confirmation in larger studies is warranted. Full article

Learning Analytics (LA) can support student success through dashboards and early-support interventions, but adoption depends on students’ willingness to allow educational data use under privacy and data-protection requirements. This study examines predictors of students’ willingness to allow educational data use for LA in higher education, focusing on perceived benefits, perceived risks, control and transparency expectations, and institutional trust. A cross-sectional survey was administered to engineering students (N = 109); after an instructed-response attention check, N = 102 valid responses were retained. Composite Likert constructs (BENEFIT, RISK, CONTROL, TRANSPARENCY, TRUST) and two willingness outcomes were analyzed: academic-support LA (WILL_ACAD) and broader aggregated institutional reporting under safeguards (WILL_BROAD). Willingness was high in both scenarios, and the paired difference did not reach statistical significance. Regression models showed that institutional trust was the strongest predictor of willingness across both use cases; perceived benefits additionally predicted willingness for academic-support LA, while perceived risk was a positive predictor in the broader-use model. Descriptive results indicated that students prioritize human review before any action affecting a student and strong security measures as key safeguards. These provide initial evidence to inform privacy-aware learning analytics governance in similar technical-university contexts; broader generalization across higher education requires replication across disciplines and institutions. Full article

Although interactive technologies such as interactive whiteboards are increasingly used in higher education, empirical evidence regarding their pedagogical role in statistics education remains limited. Existing studies often focus on technology adoption rather than instructional design. This study examines the effectiveness of interactive whiteboards when embedded within a pedagogically designed instructional framework aimed at supporting statistical thinking. A mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-test measures (N = 126) was employed to compare learning outcomes and student perceptions in an introductory university statistics course taught either through traditional lectures or through an interactive approach emphasizing dynamic visualization, collective interpretation, and formative feedback. Mediation was tested using bootstrapped indirect effects and complemented by qualitative thematic analysis. Students in the interactive condition demonstrated significantly greater gains in statistical reasoning (Cohen’s d = 0.94, 95% CI [0.57, 1.31]), particularly in tasks involving data interpretation and reasoning about variability. Mediation analysis indicated that two student self-report measures—perceived clarity of instruction and formative feedback quality—together accounted for 63% of the total effect. The interactive format was especially beneficial for students with lower prior knowledge, reducing achievement gaps by 34%. These findings are consistent with the view that interactive technologies support conceptual learning most effectively when embedded in deliberate pedagogical designs promoting visualization, collective reasoning, and real-time feedback, highlighting the central role of instructional design over technological presence. Full article

Background/Objectives: Ultra-low-profile (ULP) endografts have expanded the applicability of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) in patients with challenging aortoiliac anatomy and narrow access vessels. However, direct long-term comparisons between different ULP devices remain limited. This study aimed to compare mid- to long-term outcomes of the INCRAFT and Ovation endografts in a single-center experience. Methods: This retrospective single-center study included 102 patients (45 Ovation, 57 INCRAFT) with a median follow-up exceeding 60 months. We retrospectively analyzed 102 consecutive patients undergoing elective EVAR with ULP devices between January 2011 and December 2019. Forty-five patients were treated with Ovation and 57 with INCRAFT. The primary endpoint was technical success. Secondary endpoints included survival, reintervention, endoleak, and device-related complications. Statistical comparisons were performed using Student’s t-test and Fisher’s exact test. Results: Primary technical success was achieved in all cases. The Ovation group exhibited more complex proximal neck anatomy, including greater thrombus involvement (47.4% vs. 12.7%, p < 0.001). Post-implantation syndrome occurred more frequently with INCRAFT (14% vs. 0%, p = 0.009). No significant differences were observed in endoleak, major adverse events, or total reintervention. Long-term mortality was higher in the Ovation group (37.8% vs. 15.8%, p = 0.01), although deaths were not aneurysm-related. Median follow-up exceeded 60 months in both groups. Conclusions: Both ULP endografts demonstrated favorable long-term outcomes within the limitations of a non-randomized, anatomically heterogeneous cohort. Full article

Objective: This study examined psychological resilience (PR) as a potential moderator and mediator of the association between borderline personality symptoms (BPS) and suicidal ideation (SI) among university students. Method: A cross-sectional design was used with (N = 257) university students. Moderation and mediation were tested in separate, theory-guided models using the PROCESS macro for SPSS, version 28. The moderation model (Model 1) and the mediation model (Model 4) were estimated with heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors (HC3). In the adjusted analyses, sex, age, previous psychological consultation, previous psychotropic medication use, and family history of mental illness were entered as covariates. The indirect effect was evaluated using percentile bootstrap confidence intervals based on (5000) resamples. Results: BPS was positively correlated with SI, whereas PR was negatively correlated with both BPS and SI. In the adjusted moderation model, BPS was positively associated with SI (b = 0.118, p < 0.001) and PR was negatively associated with SI (b = −0.204, p = 0.048), but the interaction term was not significant (b = −0.001, p = 0.820) with negligible explained variance (ΔR² = 0.0003). In the adjusted mediation model, BPS was significantly associated with lower PR (a: b = −0.135, p < 0.001), and PR was associated with lower SI while controlling for BPS and the covariates (b: b = −0.216, p = 0.028). The total effect of BPS on SI was significant (c: b = 0.146, p < 0.001), and the direct effect remained significant after including PR (c′: b = 0.117, p < 0.001). The indirect effect was significant (ab = 0.029; 95% bootstrap CI [0.005, 0.061]). Conclusions: Psychological resilience did not moderate the association between BPS and suicidal ideation, but it showed a statistically significant indirect association consistent with the proposed mediation model. Higher BPS were associated with lower resilience, which in turn was associated with higher suicidal ideation. These findings suggest that resilience-related targets may complement interventions addressing core BPS-related risk processes, while the cross-sectional design precludes causal conclusions. Full article

Gamification is widely used to enhance student engagement in higher education, yet its effects in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) contexts, particularly from a Self-Determination Theory perspective, remain underexplored. This study examines whether gamification in a Moodle-based ESP course is associated with differences in students’ course satisfaction. A total of 94 undergraduate students participated in a quasi-experimental study, enrolling in either a gamified or non-gamified course format. Gamification was implemented using the Level Up plugin and H5P interactive activities. Students’ perceptions were measured using selected items from the Course Satisfaction Questionnaire. Non-parametric analyses (Mann–Whitney U tests with Holm–Bonferroni correction) were applied. Results show statistically significant differences favoring the gamified format in engagement and enjoyment, motivation to participate, and willingness to recommend the course. Differences in perceived competence and support for individual learning were positive but not statistically significant. These findings suggest that gamification in ESP is associated with more favorable motivational and affective dimensions of course satisfaction, while effects on broader learning-related perceptions remain less conclusive. This study contributes by providing evidence from a controlled LMS-based implementation and highlights the importance of theoretically grounded gamification design. Full article

In multilingual contexts such as the Basque Autonomous Community, fostering cross-linguistic awareness is essential to support literacy development and overall academic achievement. This study investigates a pedagogical intervention aimed at developing morphological awareness as a foundation for cross-linguistic reflection to enhance reading comprehension. A quasi-experimental design was implemented in a trilingual school with 70 sixth-grade students who were assigned to an experimental group (n = 24) or a control group (n = 46). Over a six-week period, the experimental group received explicit morphological instruction in the curricular languages—Basque, Spanish, and English. Morphological awareness and reading comprehension were assessed in all three languages. Although no statistically significant improvements were observed in reading comprehension, the experimental group demonstrated significantly greater gains in morphological awareness across the three languages. In addition, out-of-school exposure to Basque was positively associated with both morphological awareness and reading comprehension, highlighting the role of linguistic input. A strong association was also found between morphological awareness and reading comprehension, supporting the interdependence of these skills. Overall, the findings underscore the potential of pedagogical translanguaging to foster metalinguistic awareness across languages in multilingual educational contexts. Full article

The internet is increasingly embedded in daily life; however, excessive use may lead to internet addiction, adversely affecting health and academic performance. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of internet addiction and its association with depressive symptoms among pharmacy students at Mahasarakham University. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between 1 October and 31 December 2025 among undergraduate pharmacy students (years 1–6) aged ≥18 years who provided voluntary consent. Data were collected via street-based and online self-administered questionnaires validated for content and reliability. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied, and binary logistic regression was used to identify associated factors. Among 396 participants, the mean internet use was 9 h 43 min per day. The prevalence of excessive use (risk) was 75.95%, while 17.47% met criteria for internet addiction. High to very high psychological problems were significantly associated with internet addiction (aOR = 3.89; 95% CI: 1.70–8.89; p = 0.001). Risk of depression (2Q) was also significantly associated (aOR = 2.67; 95% CI: 1.39–5.15; p = 0.003). Internet addiction is strongly associated with mental health factors, highlighting the need for targeted prevention and institutional mental health interventions. Full article

To address the challenges of sensor installation limitations, severe background noise interference, and low model deployment efficiency in rolling bearing fault diagnosis in industrial environments, this paper proposes a lightweight, progressive fusion and knowledge-distillation diagnostic framework that integrates vibration and sound signals. First, considering the differences in physical characteristics between vibration and sound signals, a feature-extraction network for heterogeneous modality perception is designed: the vibration branch employs a large-kernel one-dimensional convolutional neural network, while the sound branch uses a small-kernel stacked two-dimensional convolutional neural network, with depthwise separable convolutions introduced for lightweight modification. Second, an attention-gated progressive feedback fusion strategy is proposed. Learnable gating units are used to filter the confidence of the fused features, feeding them back to the original input as residuals, effectively suppressing noise accumulation and improving fusion quality. Finally, a cross-architecture knowledge-distillation scheme is constructed, transferring the fault feature-discrimination ability from the deep heterogeneous fusion network (teacher network GAF-Net) to the lightweight LightGBM (student network Distilled-LGB). Combined with a normal sample statistical feature alignment mechanism, the student model can independently complete end-to-end fault diagnosis only with online-extractable handcrafted features, achieving microsecond-level pure model inference speed while ensuring diagnostic accuracy, fully meeting industrial edge deployment requirements. Experiments on a self-built industrial dataset and the public UOEMD-VAFCVS dataset show that GAF-Net achieves 97.89% (A → B) and 96.72% (15 Hz → 30 Hz) accuracy. Distilled-LGB achieves 21 ms inference time and 4.2 MB model size with <1% accuracy loss, demonstrating noise robustness, cross-condition generalization, and edge deployment capability. Full article