Search Results (140)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most influential and rapidly developing phenomena of our time. New fields of study are being created at universities, and managers are constantly introducing new AI solutions for business management, marketing, and advertising new products. Unfortunately, AI is also used to promote dangerous political parties and ideologies. The research problem that is the focus of this work is expressed in the following question: How does the symbiotic relationship between artificial and natural intelligence manifest across three dimensions of human experience—philosophical understanding, educational practice, and pastoral care—and what hermeneutical, phenomenological, and critical realist insights can illuminate both the promises and perils of this emerging co-evolution? In order to address this issue, an interdisciplinary research team was established. This team comprised a philosopher, an educator, and a pastoral theologian. This study is grounded in a critical–hermeneutic meta-analysis of the existing literature, ecclesial documents, and empirical investigations on AI. The results of scientific research allow for a broader insight into the impact of AI on humans and on personal relationships in Christian communities. The authors are concerned not only with providing an in-depth understanding of the issue but also with taking into account the ecumenical perspective of religious, social, and cultural education of contemporary Christians. Our analysis reveals that cultivating a healthy symbiosis between artificial and natural intelligence requires specific competencies and ethical frameworks. We therefore conclude with practical recommendations for Christian formation that neither uncritically embrace nor fearfully reject AI, but rather foster wise discernment for navigating this unprecedented co-evolutionary moment in human history. Full article

While studies consistently show that the popular media often provide medicalized images of disabled people as “other” or inferior, dynamic societal changes, such as the diffusion of human rights laws, increasing public awareness, and the mediatization of disability activism, also influence media representations. The present research aims to identify relevant discursive practices in Hungarian online news media, a non-Western European country with about 50 years of a state party system under communism, and offer insight into how progressive policy changes and mediatized activism shape media features on disability. To establish the dataset, the most visited and independent online news media portal in Hungary (24.hu) was searched for articles discussing disability between 2019 and 2022. The 481 relevant articles extracted were analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with the help of MAXQDA 2020. The findings reveal a multiplicity of disability representations: medicalized and victimized images on the one hand, and reports of resilience and “heroism” on the other. Three distinct discursive practices are identified: (1) traditional/ableist representations, (2) alternative representations with ableist framing, and (3) agency and the co-creation of disability representations. Results suggest that even 30 years after the political changes, disabled people’s collective agency is marginal in Hungary, and that socio-legal changes and mediatized disability activism are yet to influence news media features. Full article

Latvia after the collapse of the Soviet Union regained its independence in 1991. Since then, many political and social reforms have been introduced, minority education among them. Latvia began gradually abandoning the use of minority languages as mediums of instruction and switching to teaching exclusively in Latvian as the sole state language. This caused protests by minority groups, especially by Russians—the largest minority group in Latvia. The article examines 77 online news articles by Latvian, Russian, and European media covering protests against minority education reform in Latvia between 2004 and 2024. Each news article used at least one photograph/video of placard(s) with written information from the protests. The aim of the article is to understand how different media represent the linguistic landscape of protests against minority education reform and what are the main discourses they create and maintain regarding to the linguistic landscape of such protests in Latvia. The description of the linguistic landscapes shows three main trends: (1) only journalists (most often anonymous) describe the written information expressed at the protests, (2) emphasis is on the number of placard holders at the protests, their age and affiliation with minority support organizations and political parties, (3) author(s) quote individual slogans, more often demonstrated from one protest to another, without disclosing in which language they were originally written and what problems (within and behind the language education) they highlight or conceal. The main narratives that are reinforced through the descriptions of the linguistic landscapes included in the articles are two: (1) the Russian community is united and persistent in the fight against the ethnolinguistically unjust education policy pursued by the government, and (2) students, parents, and the Russian community should have the right to choose which educational program to study at school. Full article

The High Andean region of Peru, characterized by a complex orography, has unique and highly biodiverse ecosystems. This region has several headwater basins that play a critical role in the hydrological cycle, providing diverse ecosystem services essential to sustain biodiversity and supply water to human communities. Despite the importance of this region, it faces significant human intervention, particularly mining activities, which affect basin headwaters and jeopardize water security. This study aimed to calibrate the Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) index to evaluate water quality in High Andean rivers in Peru affected by mining activities, using aquatic macroinvertebrates as bioindicators. We used a 15-year dataset (2008 to 2023) from three headwater basins in the High Andean region; this dataset included physicochemical water quality parameters, trace metals, and aquatic macroinvertebrates. The BMWP was calibrated for the High Andean region of Peru with this dataset (BMWP/PeIAZIM); afterward, it was validated to assess water quality in an area influenced by mining activities in this region. The results allowed us to differentiate between aquatic macroinvertebrate families tolerant to mining pollution and highly sensitive families. The sites heavily affected by mining activity returned very low BMWP/PeIAZIM scores; sites with no mining impact had the highest scores. These findings indicate that the calibrated index can be used for water resource management in the High Andean region, contributing to the conservation of its ecosystems. Full article

Background/Objectives: This study explores how children with cerebral palsy (CP) and their parents experience botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) treatment, focusing on emotional and procedural challenges and communication within the triad of children, parents, and healthcare providers. Methods: This qualitative sub-study was conducted within the WE-study, a randomized controlled trial on BoNT-A effects in children with CP. Semi-structured interviews with 20 parents and 18 children (aged 4–15 years, GMFCS I–II) were thematically analyzed. Results: Three themes were identified: Preparing for the treatment, Being in the moment, and Adapting after treatment. Pre-procedural anxiety was common, with children describing nervousness or physical discomfort in the days before the treatment. During the procedure, pain management and sedation choices influenced children’s experiences, with healthcare providers being the primary source of information. After treatment, some children experienced temporary walking instability, but most quickly resumed daily activities. Communication primarily occurred between healthcare providers and each party individually, rather than through a triadic interaction. Conclusions: BoNT-A treatment involves both emotional distress and adaptation. Strengthening child-inclusive communication, structured preparation, and collaboration within the triad may improve treatment experiences and better align care with child-centered principles. Future research should explore strategies to enhance child involvement in repeated treatments. Full article

This paper explores the harmonious integration of Confucian moral values and officially sanctioned love-themed lyrics in music education across Mainland China. It addresses the main research question: What role do officially approved school songs, which embody themes of love related to three key relationships—(1) family and home, (2) teachers and friends, and (3) the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and the Chinese nation—play in promoting the virtue of love through singing within Mainland China’s music education? By analyzing two sets of officially approved music textbooks for primary school students, consisting of a total of 24 volumes, this study reveals how love-themed lyrics serve as a medium for propagating political ideology while reinforcing traditional Confucian values among the younger generation. The research illustrates how love, as a fundamental virtue, is expressed and reinforced through these songs, highlighting their significance in fostering emotional and ethical development. The findings underscore the role of music education in cultivating a sense of community and national identity, as well as the interconnectedness of personal and collective values in shaping students’ moral frameworks. Full article

Against the backdrop of the rural revitalization strategy after poverty alleviation in China, this paper takes the Dianfanghe community in Zhaochuan Town, Shangnan County, Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province as the research object and explores the role of universities in constructing a mechanism to prevent poverty reversion. A mixed-methods approach was adopted for 646 households, combining field surveys, household surveys, and spatial analysis to identify key vulnerabilities. The study found that there are five dimensions of the risk of poverty reversion in the community after poverty alleviation: unbalanced human structure, fragile physical capital, constraints of the natural environment, single source of income, and weak social capital. To address these risks, a three-party collaborative monitoring mechanism involving the government, universities, and society was proposed, which effectively enhanced the community’s risk resistance ability. This model provides a replicable paradigm for universities’ participation in consolidating poverty alleviation achievements in the new era and has important reference value for similar mountainous communities. Full article

Hearing loss is one of the most common sensory impairments acquired with aging. This condition causes communication difficulties, leading to social isolation, dependence on others, and a reduced quality of life. However, less is known about the influence of environmental factors on the experiences of older adults with hearing loss. This study utilized three waves of the National Health and Aging Trends Study (2011–2013), analyzing data from 3950 community-dwelling older adults. Survey-weighted random intercept models were used to investigate whether hearing loss is associated with social isolation over the three waves and whether this relationship is moderated by neighborhood disorder and perceived neighborhood social cohesion. The study found that older adults with hearing loss were significantly less socially isolated, while the perceived social cohesion significantly moderated the effect of hearing loss on social isolation. Given that hearing function deteriorates with age and hearing aids or other devices are rarely covered by third-party payers, except for some state Medicaid plans or rehabilitation services for veterans, addressing modifiable neighborhood factors may be the most effective way to help individuals remain socially engaged and avoid isolation. Full article

Pilot policy relating to the building of rental houses on collectively owned land is crucial for forming integrated urban and rural construction land markets and promoting rural revitalization. However, inequalities in the distribution of benefits may impede pilot projects. This paper employs a mixed-methods approach combining social network analysis, case study, and game theory to analyze the strategic decisions of key stakeholders in pilot policy, aiming to identify challenges and barriers to its implementation. Local governments, rural collective economic organizations, and enterprises are defined as the three key stakeholders, according to social network analysis. The findings suggest that the successful implementation of pilot policy requires cooperation among at least two stakeholders. Key factors influencing stakeholders include policy risk, market risk, the local government’s stance on the pilot policy, communication, coordination costs, the capabilities of collective economic organizations, and expected benefits, all of which can lead to conflicts among stakeholders. Strategies to support equilibrium of the interests of all parties are proposed, in order to promote cooperation among these three core categories of stakeholders. Full article

Anthropic activities such as agriculture, livestock, and wastewater discharges affect water quality in the Tlapaneco River in the mountain region of the state of Guerrero, México, which is a tributary of the Balsas. The river flows from the mountain region and discharges into the Pacific Ocean; the water resource in the localities mentioned is used for agriculture, recreation, and domestic activities. The aim of this study was to evaluate water quality in the stretch of influence of two localities, Patlicha and Copanatoyac. The instrument used was the Biological Monitoring Working Party biotic index (BMWP) and physicochemical parameters. Nine sampling sites were selected according to the perception of the local community with respect to disturbance; the study area was divided into three parts: high, medium, and low. Twenty-seven collections of macroinvertebrates and water were analyzed, in dry and rainy seasons, through the presence–absence of these organisms and physicochemical analysis, to evaluate water quality. The results showed that the conditions of the riverbed associated with daily activities and domestic discharges are important factors in the composition of the families. Water quality was very poor to regular, according to the macroinvertebrate assemblages collected. The BMWP index was of acceptable quality when the orders (Family) Ephemeroptera (Leptohyphidae; Leptophlebiidae; Baetidae; Ephemerellidae), Diptera (Chironomidae; Simulidae), Trichoptera (Hydropsychidae), Hemiptera (Veliidae; Corixidae), Coleoptera (Hydrophylidae), and Odonata (Lestidae) were present; in sites with poor quality, the families Chironomidae, Leptophlebiidae, Veliidae, Corixidae, Hydropsychidae, Leptohyphidae, Hydrophilidae, Baetidae, and Simuliidae were found, while in very poor quality water, only family Corixidae was present. Full article

Many leading technology companies currently offer Machine Learning as a Service Platform, enabling developers and organizations to access the inference capabilities of pre-trained models via API calls. However, due to concerns over user data privacy, inter-enterprise competition, and legal and regulatory constraints, directly utilizing pre-trained models in the cloud for inference faces security challenges. In this paper, we propose communication-efficient secure three-party protocols for recurrent neural network (RNN) inference. First, we design novel three-party secret-sharing protocols for digit decomposition, B2A conversion, enabling efficient transformation of secret shares between Boolean and arithmetic rings. Then, we propose the lookup table-based secure three-party protocol. Unlike the intuitive way of directly looking up tables to obtain results, we compute the results by utilizing the inherent mathematical properties of binary lookup tables, and the communication complexity of the lookup table protocol is only related to the output bit width. We also design secure three-party protocols for key functions in the RNN, including matrix multiplication, sigmoid function, and Tanh function. Our protocol divides the computation into online and offline phase, and places most of the computations locally. The theoretical analysis shows that the communication round of our work was reduced from four rounds to one round. The experiment results show that compared with the current SOTA-SIRNN, the online communication overhead of sigmoid and tanh functions decreased by 80.39% and 79.94%, respectively. Full article

Veterinary and charity teams are frequently involved in equine end-of-life decisions. These can cause ethical dilemmas and emotional burdens and complicate communication with owners. Semi-structured focus groups explored experiences of making decisions about end-of-life care and euthanasia at three UK equine veterinary practices and one charity. There were 26 participants in a mix of roles. Inductive coding was conducted during thematic analysis. Major themes generated were ‘Equine Welfare’, ‘Relationships’, ‘Decision-Making’, and ‘Emotional Toll and Coping Strategies’. Communication, finances, and chronic vs. acute cases were key issues featured within multiple themes. The individual horse’s welfare was the participants’ priority during decision-making. However, there were barriers to coming to a decision about treatment or euthanasia, and conflict caused by these barriers could detrimentally affect participants’ mental health. Preferred style of decision-making varied depending on the situation. Examples given included shared decision-making, participants steering the decision, and attempts by participants or owners to shift decisional responsibility onto the other party. Some owners sought additional input into decisions from veterinary nurses and receptionists. Participants found aspects of their roles emotionally challenging. This could be mitigated by supportive relationships and communication with colleagues. Involving veterinary team members in varying roles in end-of-life care planning and euthanasia decision-making with owners contributes a range of skills and expertise and helps to share the burden of responsibility. Full article

Nowadays, there is a growing interest in integrated sustainable transportation. Bike–train intermodality is one of the sustainable modes of transport, combining long-distance service and reaching the last mile. However, bike–train intermodality development both presents challenges for transport service providers and has its drawbacks for users who prefer connections that do not require changing between transport modes. The challenge consists of providing a better transition during changes between transport modes. This can be accomplished through understanding the needs of travelers followed by the implementation of infrastructural changes and the expansion of targeted services that increase the accessibility of the nodal points. Cost-effectiveness analysis, cost–benefit analysis, and a multicriteria decision process are some of the methods that can be used to allocate resources that could improve bike–train intermodality. This research extended the concept of resource allocation to a new multilevel weighted indicator (AxI) that measured the level of accessibility of bikes into railway stations to identify the criticalities and define the priority of interventions. The proposed method was applied in thirty-three Italian railway stations of different sizes. The results showed that the proposed indicator was a valid tool for railway station infrastructure managers and all stakeholders involved for prioritizing interventions related to the advancement of bike–train intermodality. The AxI indicator is a lean methodology to identify the exigencies and communicate them to the parties involved in the management and actualization. The AxI lays the groundwork for a straightforward discussion on resource distribution priorities. Full article

IEEE 802.11 is one of the most common medium access control (MAC) protocols used in wireless networks. The carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) mechanisms in 802.11 have been designed under the assumption that all nodes in the network are cooperative and trustworthy. However, the potential for non-cooperative nodes exists, nodes that may purposefully misbehave in order to, for example, obtain extra bandwidth, conserve their resources, or disrupt network performance. This issue is further compounded when receivers such as Wi-Fi hotspots, normally trusted by other module nodes, also misbehave. Such issues, their detection, and mitigation have, we believe, not been sufficiently addressed in the literature. This research proposes a novel trust-incorporated MAC protocol (TMAC) which detects and mitigates complex node misbehavior for distributed network environments. TMAC introduces three main features into the original IEEE 802.11 protocol. First, each node assesses a trust level for their neighbors, establishing a verifiable backoff value generation mechanism with an incorporated trust model involving senders, receivers, and common neighbors. Second, TMAC uses a collaborative penalty scheme to penalize nodes that deviate from the IEEE 802.11 protocol. This feature removes the assumption of a trusted receiver. Third, a TMAC diagnosis mechanism is carried out for each distributed node periodically, to reassess neighbor status and to reclassify each based on their trust value. Simulation results in ns2 showed that TMAC is effective in diagnosing and starving selfish or misbehaving nodes in distributed wireless networks, improving the performance of trustworthy well-behaving nodes. The significant feature of TMAC is its ability to detect sender, receiver, and colluding node misbehavior at the MAC layer with a high level of accuracy, without the need to trust any of the communicating parties. Full article

Vehicle Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) play an essential role in intelligent transportation systems (ITSs) by improving road safety and traffic management through robust decentralized communication between vehicles and infrastructure. Yet, decentralization introduces security vulnerabilities, including spoofing, tampering, and denial-of-service attacks, which can compromise the reliability and safety of vehicular communications. Traditional centralized security mechanisms are often inadequate in providing the real-time response and scalability required by such dispersed networks. This research promotes a shift toward distributed and real-time technologies, including blockchain and secure multi-party computation, to enhance communication integrity and privacy, ultimately strengthening system resilience by eliminating single points of failure. A core aspect of this study is the novel D-CASBR framework, which integrates three essential components. First, it employs hybrid machine learning methods, such as ElasticNet and Gradient Boosting, to facilitate real-time anomaly detection, identifying unusual activities as they occur. Second, it utilizes a consortium blockchain to provide secure and transparent information exchange among authorized participants. Third, it implements a fog-enabled reputation system that uses distributed fog computing to effectively manage trust within the network. This comprehensive approach addresses latency issues found in conventional systems while significantly improving the reliability and efficacy of threat detection, achieving 95 percent anomaly detection accuracy with minimal false positives. The result is a substantial advancement in securing vehicular networks. Full article