Search Results (11,773)

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) caused by C. trachomatis and HPV are the most prevalent worldwide. College students are characterized by being young women of reproductive age who may have risky sexual behavior. To describe the prevalence and factors associated with endocervical infection by C. trachomatis and HPV in college women in the Brazilian Amazon. Endocervical secretions were collected. The ompA gene of C. trachomatis and the L1 gene of HPV were detected. The Chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, G test, Odds Ratio, and Multiple Logistic Regression were used with 95% confidence interval and p ≤ 0.05. The overall prevalence of endocervical infection by C. trachomatis was 8.3% (25/302) and by HPV was 28.9% (87/302). Low income was associated with sexually transmitted infection by C. trachomatis (14.8%, p = 0.0336). Those under 25 years old had twice the chance of HPV infection [39.3%, (OR: 2.6989), 95% CI: 1.6054–4.5371, p = 0.0002], as did women without children [31.8%, (OR: 2.333), CI: 1.1235–4.8461, p = 0.0307]. Women who did not study in a public school had 63% reduced risk of acquiring HPV infection [45.8% (OR: 0.3713), CI: 0.1951–0.7064, p = 0.0035]. C. trachomatis and HPV infections were present in low-income, childless young women who attended public schools, requiring the intensification of STI prevention policies in the Amazon region. Full article

Background: University students often face significant psychological challenges and lifestyle disruptions that may compromise their mental resources and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Although associations between physical activity (PA) and mental health have been widely reported, few studies have integrated different PA intensities, sedentary behavior, and psychological resources jointly related in one analytical model. Objective: This study investigated the relationships among vigorous (VPA), moderate (MPA), and light (LPA) physical activity, sedentary behavior (SB), resilience (RES), self-esteem (SE), and HRQoL in a sample of Chinese university students. Methods: A cross-sectional survey included 1560 university students from six universities in China, with a mean age of 19.43 ± 1.15 years; the sample comprised 434 males (27.8%) and 1126 females (72.2%). Relationships among the variables were tested using path analysis within a structural equation modeling framework. Results: Greater PA engagement was related to higher RES, SE, and HRQoL, whereas SB was not significantly associated with RES. All three PA intensities were positively associated with RES, although the magnitude of these associations varied. In addition, RES was also related to higher SE and HRQoL, and SE was related to higher HRQoL. Conclusions: These findings suggest that PA is associated with psychological resources and HRQoL among university students. Longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to determine the directionality and mechanisms underlying these relationships. Full article

Academic satisfaction is positioned as a fundamental psychological construct with regard to academic success, linked to well-being and cognitive engagement. The aim of the study was to evaluate the satisfaction of secondary school students with high intellectual abilities (HIA) participating in the university mentoring program in the Basque Country Autonomous Community. A quantitative methodology was used with a sample of 90 students. A purpose-developed 17-item questionnaire with 17 items used to measure the different areas that make up the multidimensionality of satisfaction. The results indicate very high levels of overall satisfaction, with particular emphasis on the quality of the bond and the mentor’s expertise. Likewise, through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the validity of the instrument was tested under the ‘Big Four’ model (improvement-oriented learning, individualization, feedback and practical tasks with minimal transfer). It is concluded that the mentoring program used constitutes a suitable educational response that harmonizes intellectual challenge with the psychosocial support necessary to transform potential into talent. Full article

COVID-19 has had profound global impacts, and Long COVID may continue to affect quality of life and well-being in some individuals. Young adults may be particularly vulnerable to these impacts due to ongoing physiological, behavioral, and psychological development. This study aimed to examine the associations between Long COVID, mental health-related outcomes, and quality of life among university students. A total of 365 Thai undergraduate students participated in this cross-sectional study screening for Long COVID. Long COVID symptoms, mental health, sleep quality, and quality of life were assessed using validated Thai versions of the Long COVID Screening Questionnaire, DASS-21, PSQI, and EQ-5D-5L. Regression and group comparison analyses were conducted between participants with Long COVID and those without Long COVID. Fatigue and cough were the most reported symptoms, while sleep disturbances were also prevalent. Long COVID was associated with significantly lower quality of life scores (p = 0.035). However, no significant differences were observed in DASS-21 or PSQI scores between groups. Vaccination doses and prior COVID-19 infections differed significantly between groups (p < 0.001 and p = 0.017). These findings highlight the multisystem impacts of Long COVID and emphasize the importance of identification and supportive interventions to enhance student health and well-being. Full article

Driven by Emerging Engineering Education and basic education reform, cultivating engineering literacy in pre-service teachers is vital for nurturing innovative talent. This qualitative multiple-case study examines current practices in nine leading Chinese normal universities, primarily through document analysis of institutional policies and curricula, supplemented by faculty interviews and a pre-service teacher survey in a subsample of institutions. Thematic analysis reveals prominent predicaments: a fragmented curriculum, monolithic training models, misaligned resources, and low student motivation. These issues stem from ambiguous conceptual positioning, weak institutional design, and a shortage of specialized faculty and platforms. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a systematic Four-in-One breakthrough framework encompassing Top-Level Design, Platform Foundation, Faculty Empowerment, and Project-Centric Cultivation. Central to this framework is a dual-track drive model, which integrates hands-on engineering practice with pedagogical application, enabling future teachers to develop engineering thinking and the competency to translate it into effective classroom teaching. While the proposed framework requires further empirical validation, this approach offers a theoretical and practical pathway for reconstructing teacher education and building a high-quality teaching workforce. Full article

This study aimed to describe the profile of professional collaboration among students in teacher-education programmes and to examine whether readiness for further collaboration is associated with prior experience. The work was conducted within a university grant at XXXXXXXXX and implemented as a descriptive–comparative study based on a posttest cross-sectional snapshot with no baseline measurement. Data were collected via Google Forms from 91 students of the Department of Primary Education (Years 1–4). The questionnaire covered collaboration experience (yes/no), frequency of participation in joint projects, perceived value of collaboration (1–5), perceived impact on the learning experience, readiness to participate in joint research/projects in the future (1–5), and open-ended questions on motivations, barriers, and expected university support. Prior collaboration experience was reported by 40.7% of respondents; participation was predominantly irregular (48.4% “never”, 44.0% “rarely”). Perceived value was high (M = 4.05, SD = 1.15; Me = 4), and most respondents reported a positive contribution to their learning experience (75.8%). Readiness for future participation was moderately high (levels 4–5: 52.7%). A Mann–Whitney test indicated higher readiness among students with prior collaboration experience (U = 1288, p = 0.016, r = 0.29). Thematic grouping of open-ended responses showed that knowledge sharing and mutual support were the dominant motivations, while organisational/time and communication barriers were most frequently mentioned; the most commonly requested support measures included regular joint events and support for student communities. Findings are interpreted as a descriptive snapshot rather than causal evidence. The results may inform the design of facilitated collaboration formats and subsequent monitoring of student readiness. Full article

Generative AI tools are increasingly used in higher education, yet most available systems lack pedagogical grounding, course alignment, and insight into student learning. This paper presents the development, implementation, and evaluation of the bioTutor, an open-source, course-specific AI chatbot designed to support constructivist learning in large university classrooms. The system integrates a curated knowledge base, a didactically structured interaction design, and a learning analytics dashboard for instructors that summarizes anonymized student-chatbot conversations. To assess students’ perceptions of usefulness, ease of use, learning relevance, output quality, and result demonstrability, we developed an education-adapted extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (edTAM) and applied it in an introductory biology course with 407 enrolled students. During a 23-week deployment, students generated more than 10,000 interactions across over 1000 conversations. Questionnaire data indicate high usability, strong perceived usefulness, and broad interest in adopting similar tools. Usage patterns show that the bioTutor was employed both for learning and exam preparation. These findings suggest that students perceived pedagogically structured, course-grounded AI chatbots as useful for learning and exam preparation, while the lecturer dashboard provided aggregated insights into students’ questions and recurring difficulties. The open-source framework enables adaptation to other disciplines and provides a scalable foundation for further research on didactically informed AI systems in higher education. Full article

Tourism education is central to human capital development under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, yet the extent to which curricula align with emerging industry requirements remains underexplored, particularly in developing economy contexts. This qualitative study examines student and faculty perspectives on curriculum alignment at the University of Ha’il’s Tourism and Antiquities Department. Twenty participants were purposively recruited and interviewed; data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings reveal four interconnected challenges: a persistent theory–practice gap sustained by lecture-based pedagogies, insufficient integration of digital and smart tourism technologies, weak industry–academia partnerships, and structural barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration. In response, this study proposes an interdisciplinary integration model structured around five domains: digital technology, sustainability and environment, business and entrepreneurship, cultural and creative industries, and social sciences and community engagement. The model provides a progressive framework for cross-departmental collaboration and represents the study’s primary practical contribution. Theoretically, the study demonstrates that curriculum misalignment operates through mutually reinforcing institutional constraints rather than discrete correctable deficits. Recommendations address curriculum reform, technology investment, structured partnership development, and administrative conditions enabling interdisciplinary implementation. Full article

This article examines how kindness can be understood, expressed and enacted through intercultural citizenship education in higher education, with particular attention to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Situated within a theoretical framework that brings together intercultural citizenship and EDI, the study argues that these fields are mutually reinforcing and that their integration is enriched by foregrounding kindness. Empirically, the article reports on a qualitative multiple case study conducted in 2023, involving university students from Argentina and the United Kingdom who collaboratively designed English language teaching materials focused on kindness. Data consisted of student-generated textual and artistic artefacts, including lesson plans, teachers’ notes, drawings, comics and other teaching materials, which were analysed using a multimodal approach. Across cases, kindness functioned as a relational disposition, ethical compass, emotional anchor and intentional action, serving as a pedagogical response to issues of gender inequality, mental health and disability inclusion. The study argues that a structured grammar of intercultural kindness offers a vocabulary that makes visible the relational, ethical, emotional and action-oriented dimensions through which kindness shapes the pedagogical enactment of intercultural citizenship and EDI. This approach demonstrates that kindness can be taught; however, its transformative potential depends on a deliberate political orientation. Full article

Nowadays, Python is very popular as the first programming language for novices, including high school students, to learn due to its short code features with rich libraries. Thus, it is important to provide a learning environment supporting studies starting from the fundamentals, since students have no knowledge on how a program runs on a computer. Previously, we have developed a web-based programming learning assistant system (PLAS) to allow the self-study of major programming languages, including Python, by university students. It offers several types of exercise problems that have different learning goals and levels for step-by-step study. Any student answer is automatically marked at the answer interface for quick feedback. However, PLAS has not implemented functions to assist the learning needs of high school-level students. In this paper, we propose a novice-friendly answer interface for a Python programming learning assistant system (PyPLAS) that introduces a code behavior visualization and an AI assistant with learning logs. The visualization allows learners to observe the changes in variable states and the control flow. The assistant provides multi-level hints during learning and reflective feedback after it by analyzing the logs based on engagement, reasoning strategies, learning pace, and tool usage. For evaluation, we implemented the proposed interface using Python Flask for the web platform and Ollama as a locally deployed AI model. A pilot application was conducted with high school students solving introductory Python exercises in PyPLAS. The results showed high task completion, positive questionnaire responses toward embedded visualization and interface usability, and teacher-observed usefulness of the four-dimensional learning analytics for interpreting learner behaviors. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the feasibility and practical value of the proposed interface, while larger controlled studies are required to validate its instructional effectiveness. Full article

While the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education is widespread, students’ experiences with AI-supported learning in their regular courses remain underexplored. Objective: This research examines the relationships among perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and academic engagement among undergraduate students enrolled in AI-supported courses at a Taiwan university. It adopts the Technology Acceptance Model, where learning desire indicates perceived usefulness, and technology self-efficacy indicates perceived ease of use. Methods: The study takes a questionnaire with six dimensions of technology self-efficacy, learning desire, learning methods, learning planning, learning habits, and learning process to evaluate students’ attitudes toward AI-supported learning and their academic engagement. Results: Students’ attitudes toward AI-supported learning were moderate to positive. Multiple regression analysis showed that perceived usefulness was significantly and positively associated with academic engagement, whereas perceived ease of use showed a positive but non-significant association. Implications: Students’ academic engagement is influenced more by how useful AI tools are perceived for learning, rather than by their confidence in using AI tools. This paper enriches the literature on student-centered AI in higher education and gives insights for designing AI-supported courses that integrate AI tools with meaningful learning tasks. Future research can examine larger and more diverse samples and use longitudinal or experimental designs to test how students’ perceptions of AI tools develop over time. Full article

Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage contributes to asymptomatic transmission in both community and healthcare settings. This study aimed to characterize S. aureus strains isolated from students of the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Poland, using phenotypic and genotypic methods. A total of 175 S. aureus strains were isolated from the nasal vestibules of 800 students between 2014 and 2015. Species identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing were performed using standard microbiological methods, while virulence-associated genes and agr groups were analyzed using Single-PCR and Multiplex-PCR assays. Genotypic diversity was assessed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The prevalence of S. aureus nasal carriage among students was 21.9% and did not differ according to faculty or year of study. Most isolates (84.0%) were susceptible to all tested antibiotics, and no methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains were detected. All strains carried the hla gene, whereas hld and hlg were identified in 93.7% and 93.1% of isolates, respectively. In addition, the tst gene was detected in 22.3% of strains, while the lukS-PV/lukF-PV genes were identified in only one isolate (0.6%). The most prevalent enterotoxin genes were sep (17.1%) and sea (13.7%), whereas genes of the egc cluster, including seg, sei, and seo, were detected in 53.7% of isolates. Significant associations were observed between specific egc gene combinations and superantigen gene profiles, including increased frequencies of sec, sel, and tst genes (p < 0.001). The predominant agr type was agr-1 (49.7%), followed by agr-3 (28.6%) and agr-2 (20.0%). Strains carrying agr-1 more frequently harbored the g i m n o cluster as well as the sec, sel, and sep genes, whereas agr-3-positive isolates were significantly associated with the g i m o u and g i o u clusters and with the presence of tst, sea, and seh genes (p < 0.05). PFGE analysis demonstrated substantial genetic heterogeneity among the isolates, with no evidence of a predominant clonal lineage. These findings indicate a heterogeneous, non-epidemic population structure of S. aureus strains circulating among university students and highlight the considerable diversity and interrelationships of virulence-associated genetic profiles within this population. Full article

Background/Objectives: Mental health problems are common among university students and are more consistently associated with dissatisfaction with academic performance than with low grades alone. This study examined the prevalence and determinants of perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and low psychological well-being among university students in Punjab, Pakistan, and assessed their association with academic performance. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among students aged 15 to 29 years at three public universities in Punjab, Pakistan. A total of 1308 questionnaires were completed, yielding a response rate of 91.4%. This study uses data collected in 2015 as a pre-COVID historical baseline, providing valuable insights into student mental health before the global pandemic. This temporal context offers a benchmark for future comparative studies, especially when assessing the mental health impact of COVID-19 on university students. Data were analyzed using SPSS with descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, binary logistic regression, and multinomial logistic regression. Results: The findings revealed that perceived stress and depressive symptoms were prevalent, with 54.9% of students reporting high levels of stress (mean PSS score = 27.6, SD = 8.3), and 44.2% experiencing depressive symptoms (mean M-BDI score = 33.8, SD = 16.2). Female students exhibited higher stress and depressive symptoms compared to male students. Year of study was also a factor, with second- and third-year students experiencing more stress than their final-year counterparts (p < 0.05). Financial strain was associated with poorer mental health outcomes; 62% of students who reported inadequate financial support also reported higher stress levels (p < 0.05). In contrast, students with sufficient financial resources had lower odds of experiencing stress and depressive symptoms (AOR = 0.55, p < 0.05). Additionally, students living in university or private hostels reported better psychological well-being than those living at home (AOR = 0.47, p < 0.01). Mental health issues, particularly high stress and depression, were more strongly linked with academic dissatisfaction than low grades alone, with students in the “low grades and unsatisfied” group exhibiting higher odds of mental health problems (AOR = 2.30, p < 0.05). Conclusions: Mental health problems were common among university students and were associated with poorer academic experiences, particularly dissatisfaction with academic performance. Universities should strengthen accessible mental health support through counseling services, stress-management programs, and stigma-reduction initiatives. Full article

Period poverty, defined as difficulty affording menstrual products, is increasingly recognized as a basic needs issue among students in the United States. However, evidence on the prevalence and awareness of this phenomenon among both undergraduate and graduate populations remains limited. Therefore, the aim of this descriptive cross-sectional study is to describe period poverty experiences and awareness levels among menstruating college students at a public university in South Florida. An online survey was administered to menstruating undergraduate and graduate students (n = 151). Period poverty was assessed using a past-year affordability question, while awareness of period poverty was measured descriptively through seven items derived from a previous study on period poverty in U.S. college students. Overall, 13.9% of respondents reported past-year period poverty. Awareness of period poverty was limited, despite high support for policies providing free menstrual products. Only 16.67% perceived period poverty to be highly prevalent in developed countries, and only 8% believed that it existed in their local area. Three fourths (75.00%) of the sample strongly supported policies to provide free menstrual products. Finally, over half of the respondents felt “not at all embarrassed” (55.07%) towards buying menstrual products, while just over one fourth reported being “fairly embarrassed” (28.26%). The discrepancy between the number of students experiencing period poverty and the levels of awareness of the issue shows a clear need for evidence-based educational interventions and menstrual resources on college campuses to improve overall menstrual well-being. Full article

Background/Objectives: The signs and symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) can be similar to those of various other illnesses and conditions. To facilitate the detection and categorization of PMS symptoms, specific questionnaires have been developed. The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool (PSST) for the Serbian-speaking population and assess its validity and reliability. Material and Methods: Our convenience sample included 350 Serbian-speaking female health sciences students from one of the Serbian universities who had PMS symptoms at least once during the past 12 months. They completed a general socio-epidemiologic questionnaire, the PSST, and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). The PSST was translated according to the recommended methodology, and its psychometric characteristics (internal consistency, construct, discriminant validity and convergent validity) were tested. Results: There were no major changes in the items during the process of translation or validation. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the whole scale was 0.927, whereas if an item was deleted, it was >0.8 for all the items. The McDonald’s omega coefficient was 0.896, indicating good internal consistency. The CI–TC coefficients were greater than 0.40 for all the items, indicating that all items were significant elements of the PSST. Exploratory factor analysis extracted three factors. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed adequate values for all model fit estimators. The PSST significantly correlated with the DASS-21, which confirmed its adequate convergent validity. Conclusions: The Serbian version of the PSST showed good validity and therefore can be used as a screening tool for PMS in Serbian-speaking young women. Full article