Search Results (679)

Digital transformation has profoundly reshaped caregiving practices, yet its influence on family cohesion within disability contexts remains underexplored, particularly in Arab societies. This qualitative phenomenological study examines how digital technologies shape family cohesion among Jordanian caregivers of children with disabilities. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 primary caregivers, and data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings reveal a central tension of being “between connectivity and care,” articulated through four interrelated themes: (1) a digital double-bind in which online support networks function as a vital “virtual village” while simultaneously contributing to intra-familial fragmentation; (2) the reconfiguration of care labor, whereby digital management emerges as an invisible and gendered form of caregiving work, often positioning mothers as primary digital coordinators; (3) the translation of traditional social capital (wasta) into digital spaces to navigate systemic resource constraints, producing new moral and emotional burdens; and (4) the strategic use of digital platforms to preserve cultural, religious, and familial identity in the face of stigma, thereby reinforcing internal cohesion. These findings suggest that digital technologies do not merely facilitate connection but actively reconfigure family dynamics through ongoing negotiation between support and strain. The study underscores the need for family-centered digital inclusion policies and support interventions that mitigate digital burdens while harnessing technology’s potential to strengthen culturally grounded resilience among families of children with disabilities. Full article

This study examines female microenterprise entrepreneurship in the city of Juliaca, Peru, as a response to structural conditions of poverty, informality, and limited inclusion in public policies. The research aims to understand and interpret the dynamics of women-led entrepreneurship and its relationship with sustainable local socioeconomic development. A qualitative methodological approach based on an interpretive phenomenological design was adopted. Data was collected through in-depth interviews, direct observation, and document analysis with sixteen microentrepreneurs selected through purposive and snowball sampling. The findings reveal that intrinsic motivations (resilience, leadership, and self-fulfillment) and extrinsic motivations (economic independence, access to financing, and education) are key factors in the entrepreneurial process. In addition, entrepreneurial social capital, expressed through family, community, and institutional networks, plays a strategic role in the sustainability of businesses. The results also show that women entrepreneurs actively and significantly contribute to sustainable local socioeconomic development by strengthening local development ecosystems, generating employment, and promoting socially, fiscally, and ethically responsible practices. Despite their role as agents of change and transformation, women entrepreneurs continue to face structural barriers, highlighting the need for public policies with territorial and gender-sensitive approaches to strengthen their impact and sustainability. Full article

Given its substantial contribution to traffic accidents, one of the main goals of intelligent driver-assistance systems has become the detection and mitigation of driver fatigue to enhance driving safety and comfort. Among various approaches, vision-based facial analysis using deep learning has emerged as an effective and non-intrusive method for identifying driver drowsiness, as a key manifestation of fatigue. However, current drowsiness detection models do not account for demographic factors like gender, even though recent research has shown gender behavioral differences such as eye closure duration, blink frequency, yawning patterns, and facial muscle relaxation. In this paper, we present a fine-grained multi-stream transformer architecture that incorporates gender-awareness and shifted-windows attention for spatial feature fusion. Integrating gender embedding, by modulating the region-based features, allows the model to effectively learn gender-conditioned drowsiness features to minimize bias and diluted representations. Using the NTHU-DDD dataset, we evaluated two-stream and three-stream variants for gender-aware and gender-agnostic across three facial region contexts: the face region with a 20% margin, bare face region, and key facial regions (face, eyes, and mouth). A comprehensive ablation study was conducted to identify the most effective model setup. The results demonstrate that incorporating gender embedding improves detection performance, achieving an accuracy of 95.47% on the evaluation set. Moreover, using the proposed three-stream model (SWT-DD-3S) produced better results. Full article

Through the combined lenses of ecofeminism, masculinity studies, and critical animal studies, this article examines the cultural functions of animal metamorphosis in two Walt Disney animated feature films, Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and the Frog. It argues that animality operates as a narrative and symbolic space in which dominant gender norms and human–animal hierarchies are temporarily destabilized and reconfigured. Drawing on film analysis, this study shows how the animal figure enables the emergence of alternative masculinities—sensitive, relational, and ecologically attuned—while simultaneously exposing the structural limits of this apparent subversion. Although these films challenge toxic masculinity and propose more egalitarian interspecific relationships, their narrative resolutions ultimately reinstate anthropocentric and heteronormative frameworks by reasserting human centrality and normative romantic closure. By situating Disney’s representations within broader Western dualistic logics of domination (culture/nature, masculine/feminine, human/animal), I demonstrate that animality functions less as an autonomous mode of existence than as a transitional narrative device facilitating human self-transformation. In doing so, this article contributes to current discussions on how culturally mediated representations of animals shape human social imaginaries, ethical frameworks, and understandings of interspecies relationships. Full article

This study examines how pre-service teachers construct pedagogical knowledge to promote equity in school settings through reflection and research from an intersectional gender perspective. Situated within current debates on gender, interculturality, and social justice in teacher education, the study explores how pre-service teachers develop critical awareness of inequality and envision transformative practices. Using a qualitative design, three reflective workshops were conducted with students from Early Childhood and Elementary Education programs in Chilean universities. Thematic analysis identified nine principal codes, which were later organized into four analytical domains: knowledge construction, interculturality and inclusion, gender practices, and intersectional meanings. Results show that participants conceive teaching as a political and ethical practice linked to community engagement, democratic coexistence, and affective responsibility. They also challenge traditional gender roles by proposing co-care and collective well-being as foundations for equitable education. Furthermore, intercultural and situated pedagogies emerge as key strategies for connecting theory with practice and validating diversity within the classroom. Participants demonstrate emerging forms of intersectional and gender awareness, questioning the feminization of teaching and proposing notions of co-care and collective well-being that transcend binary gender norms. They also value intercultural and contextual pedagogies, emphasizing empathy, recognition of diversity, and the validation of students’ origins and trajectories. Full article

This study presents a systematic review of Social Network Analysis (SNA) applications in Egyptology, examining methodological developments, current achievements, and future research directions. Despite Egypt’s exceptional documentary legacy spanning three millennia—administrative papyri, diplomatic correspondence, and prosopographical inscriptions—Egyptology has adopted network analytical methods more slowly than other archaeological disciplines. The review evaluates existing research across major historical periods, assessing methodological approaches and contributions to understanding Egyptian administrative structures, elite strategies, and social organization. Critical gaps identified include limited coverage of the Late Period, insufficient attention to economic and religious networks, minimal focus on gender and household-level analysis, and geographic concentration in Upper Egypt. The review also identifies methodological challenges specific to Egyptian sources: temporal depth, hierarchical social structures, preservation biases, and integration of diverse evidence types. Priority areas for development include large-scale collaborative projects, computational relationship extraction from digitised sources, and temporal network analysis capitalising on Egypt’s exceptional chronological span. The field stands at a critical juncture where coordinated development could transform understanding of ancient Egyptian society while contributing to broader archaeological network science. Full article

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is rapidly transforming higher education by introducing new mechanisms for supporting the development of advanced cognitive processes and research-related capabilities. This study examines how postgraduate students employ GAI to develop their cognitive and research talent, conceptualized here as higher-order academic skills such as analysis, synthesis, and critical reasoning, across six domains: literature review, theoretical development, research design, data analysis, academic writing, ethical use, and challenges encountered—signaled explicitly rather than listed line by line. We administered a validated multidimensional scale to 214 postgraduate students, and the results indicate a moderate overall use of GAI, with notably high involvement in practices that emphasize ethics and responsibility. Students reported clear cognitive benefits in tasks involving information processing, linguistic refinement, and conceptual clarification while showing caution toward delegating higher-order analytical or theoretical reasoning to AI systems. Key challenges included limited institutional training, concerns about data privacy and academic integrity, and difficulties evaluating the originality and reliability of AI-generated content. Inferential analyses indicated significant differences based on gender, academic level, and general technology proficiency, whereas no differences emerged across age groups, departments, or specializations. Overall, this study demonstrates how GAI can contribute to the development of higher-level cognitive skills and research competencies, with “moderate use” operationalized as consistent but selective engagement across domains, while underscoring the need for structured training, clear guidelines, and teaching approaches that foster the responsible and effective incorporation of AI within postgraduate research. The results highlight practical implications for higher education, including the importance of institutional training programs, governance frameworks for responsible AI use, and pedagogical models that foster critical engagement with GAI. Full article

Background: Warfarin pharmacogenomics is critical due to its narrow therapeutic index and significant interpatient variability. While machine learning (ML) can predict anticoagulation control status (ACS), its “black-box” nature limits clinical translatability. Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) addresses this by providing interpretable insights. This study applied ML and XAI to a warfarin pharmacogenomic dataset to predict poor ACS and explain model decisions. Methods: A post hoc analysis was conducted on a cross-sectional dataset of 232 patients receiving warfarin for ≥6 months. Data included age, gender, interacting drugs, SAMe-TT2R2 score, and genotypes for CYP2C9, VKORC1, and CYP4F2. Poor ACS was defined as time in therapeutic range (TTR) < 70%. The dataset was split into training (70%) and testing (30%) cohorts. Three models, Random Forest, XGBoost, and Logistic Regression, were developed and evaluated using AUC-ROC, sensitivity, and specificity. XAI techniques, including permutation importance and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), were employed for global and local interpretability. Results: Of 232 patients, 141 (60.8%) had poor ACS. XGBoost and Random Forest demonstrated comparable predictive accuracy (AUC-ROC: 0.67), outperforming Logistic Regression. Sensitivity was 0.83 and 0.79 for XGBoost and Random Forest, respectively. However, specificity was modest for both ensemble methods (Random Forest: 0.48; XGBoost: 0.41) and extremely low for Logistic Regression (0.04), indicating poor discrimination, particularly for identifying patients with adequate anticoagulation control. Globally, important predictors included the age, SAMe-TT2R2 score, CYP2C9 (*2/*2), female gender, and VKORC1 (C/T). XAI revealed predictions were primarily driven by VKORC1, CYP4F2, SAMe-TT2R2 scores, and drug interactions. Concordance between XAI predictions and actual ACS was 78% for adequate and 88.6% for poor ACS. SHAP analysis showed VKORC1 provided a stable risk signal (mean absolute SHAP: 1.44 ± 0.49 in concordant cases), while CYP2C9 was a high-variance, high-impact driver of discordance (mean SHAP: 3.44 ± 3.79 in discordant cases). Conclusions: ML models, particularly ensemble methods, show modest ability to predict poor warfarin control with limited ability to correctly identify patients with adequate control from our dataset. XAI transforms these models into interpretable tools, with SHAP analysis attributing predictions to specific genetic and clinical features. While predictive accuracy remains modest, this approach enhances transparency and provides a foundation for generating hypotheses that may ultimately support clinical decision-making in pharmacogenomic-guided warfarin therapy. Full article

Global research on social–emotional learning (SEL) demonstrates robust benefits for student well-being and academic outcomes, yet SEL is still largely treated as gender and culturally neutral, with little attention to how it intersects with locally specific constructions of masculinity. We address this gap through a qualitative study in three urban secondary schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, combining focus groups with boys aged 13–16 (n = 18), student interviews (n = 10), and teacher/counsellor interviews (n = 10). Using critical masculinity theory, the sociology of emotions, and transformative SEL, a reflexive thematic analysis identifies four patterns: (i) sadness and fear framed as status risks while anger signals strength, (ii) “switching off” feelings as masculinized emotion work tied to locally valued ideals of sabar (endurance) and izzat (honour), (iii) fragile “islands of care” where privacy and dignity enable conditional vulnerability, and (iv) SEL-like practices fostering empathy but also reinforcing stigma when emotions are labelled unmanly. We argue that SEL is a contested site where masculinities are reproduced and renegotiated, and we propose five findings-grounded design principles, including graduated emotional entry points, anti-ridicule norms, and indirect pedagogy for gender-attentive SEL that reduces stigma and supports non-violent masculinities in Pakistani secondary schooling. Full article

This paper presents qualitative findings from a broader study conducted with beneficiaries of social assistance grants in Nkonkobe Municipality, South Africa, guided by Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach and a Feminist Political Economy perspective. It specifically examines the impact of the Child Support Grant (CSG) on women residing in rural areas with limited economic opportunities. Drawing on the narratives of twenty-five female beneficiaries, the study explores the grant’s role beyond child welfare outcomes. Despite its small monetary value, the CSG demonstrated significant and unintended transformative effects. Within contexts of persistent poverty, unemployment, and inequality, the grant contributed to alleviating household hardship and enhancing women’s empowerment. Participants reported increased economic agency, autonomy, and decision-making capacity. The CSG also served as a critical resource for women seeking to exit abusive relationships by providing a measure of financial independence, often lacking among survivors of domestic violence. These findings contribute to broader debates on welfare services as tools for equality, diversity, and democracy, highlighting the CSG’s potential to advance gender empowerment and social inclusion. However, the grant alone remains insufficient to ensure sustainable economic security. The paper recommends that the CSG be strengthened through increased value and complemented by active labour market interventions that promote women’s economic participation. Full article

The rapid digital transformation of education systems has profoundly changed teachers’ working conditions, intensified administrative demands, and highlighted territorial and organizational inequalities. In this context, understanding how these dynamics influence teacher engagement is essential for promoting healthy educational organizations. This study examined the factor structure of the UWES-17 and analyzed the relationship between engagement levels and sociodemographic variables in a sample of 314 elementary school teachers from four regions of Chile. Descriptive analyses, exploratory factor analysis with polychoric correlations and unweighted least squares, and confirmatory factor analysis using robust ULS and the Hull method were performed. The results showed a robust two-factor structure—Inspired Vitality and Challenging Commitment—with excellent fit indices. Freeman–Halton exact tests showed that Inspired Vitality was significantly associated with age, gender, region, location, administrative dependency, and professional experience, while Challenging Commitment was associated with gender, region, context, and professional experience. These findings indicate that teacher engagement is influenced by both structural inequalities and individual trajectories. The results underscore the need to strengthen organizational resources, regulate digital intensification, and reduce territorial gaps to promote teacher well-being. Full article

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are profound psychological events known to catalyze significant spiritual transformation, though most research has been conducted in Western contexts. This study investigated perceived changes in spirituality or religiosity following NDEs among adults residing in Jakarta, Indonesia (N = 402 NDErs; 70% female; M_age = 23, SD = 7.93). This population is crucial as spirituality or religiosity are deeply intertwined yet understudied here. Gender differences were non-significant in both continuous (t(400) = 0.43, p = 0.671) and categorical analyses (χ²(2) = 1.03, p = 0.597). Crucially, age emerged as a significant moderator. Early adulthood showed the highest rate of post-NDE increase, significantly exceeding adolescence (z = −2.86, p = 0.004). Conversely, middle adulthood showed higher baseline levels but greater post-NDE stability. Furthermore, pre-existing spirituality or religiosity significantly predicted post-NDE changes (r = 0.174, p < 0.001). Interestingly, non-religious individuals were paradoxically overrepresented among those reporting a decrease (χ²(4) = 15.10, p = 0.004). These findings indicate that age and pre-existing levels of spirituality or religiosity potentially moderate the relationship between NDEs and changes in spiritual or religious levels following NDEs, highlighting the role of developmental and cognitive factors in transformative experiences. This study suggests that NDEs are associated with increased spirituality or religiosity among Indonesians, consistent with the broader global literature on their transformative aftereffects. Full article

Introduction: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have transformed the treatment of metastatic melanoma; however, predictive markers of therapeutic response remain poorly defined. This study systematically assesses clinical, histological, and molecular predictors associated with survival outcomes in melanoma patients treated with ICIs. Methods: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and the Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines, a systematic search was conducted in MEDLINE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) for studies published between January 2018 and October 2025. Eligible studies reported associations between predictive factors and overall survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) in adult melanoma patients receiving ICIs. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) from univariate (UVA) and multivariate analyses (MVA) were synthesized using random-effects meta-analyses. Results: Sex was not a consistent predictor (contradictory effects; PFS heterogeneity I² ≈ 90%), whereas older age predicted worse OS (MVA continuous: HR 1.05, 95% CI 1.02–1.08; UVA ≥ 65 vs. <65: HR 1.70, 95% CI 1.36–2.12). Poor performance status, assessed using the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) scale, strongly predicted inferior outcomes (ECOG ≥ 1 vs. 0: MVA OS HR 2.01, 95% CI 1.61–2.51; MVA PFS HR 1.49, 95% CI 1.18–1.88; ECOG ≥ 2 vs. <2: MVA OS HR 2.24, 95% CI 1.79–2.81). Elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was consistently associated with poorer survival (MVA OS HR 1.71, 95% CI 1.53–1.91; MVA PFS HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.41–1.85), whereas body mass index (BMI) > 25 kg/m² was associated with improved OS (HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.68–0.98). Higher disease burden predicted worse prognosis (Stage IV vs. III: MVA OS HR 1.57, 95% CI 1.16–2.13; >2 metastatic sites vs. ≤2: MVA OS HR 2.38, 95% CI 1.40–4.07; brain metastases: MVA OS HR 1.69, 95% CI 1.30–2.20; MVA PFS HR 1.52, 95% CI 1.00–2.33). Histologic and molecular factors showed prognostic value: ulceration worsened OS (UVA HR 2.08, 95% CI 1.25–3.44) and PFS (UVA HR 2.97, 95% CI 1.39–6.32); acral subtype had poorer OS than cutaneous melanoma (MVA HR 2.99, 95% CI 1.63–5.48); high tumor mutational burden (TMB) improved PFS (UVA HR 0.47, 95% CI 0.33–0.70); and cutaneous immune-related adverse events (irAEs) were associated with favorable outcomes (skin disorders: UVA OS HR 0.26, 95% CI 0.14–0.47; UVA PFS HR 0.50, 95% CI 0.34–0.74). In contrast, detectable circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) predicted markedly worse PFS (MVA HR 4.72, 95% CI 2.31–9.65) and a non-significant trend toward worse OS (MVA HR 3.34, 95% CI 0.96–11.67). Liver metastases and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression were not significantly associated with survival. Discussion: This meta-analysis synthesizes evidence on clinicopathologic, laboratory, and histopathologic predictors of immunotherapy outcomes in metastatic melanoma. Performance status, age, LDH, BMI, and metastatic burden consistently correlated with prognosis, while ulceration, disease stage, and TMB emerged as key histologic determinants. Conversely, PD-L1 and gender showed no consistent predictive value, whereas cutaneous immune-related adverse events and ctDNA reflected favorable and poor outcomes, respectively. These findings highlight the multifactorial nature of immunotherapy response and support the further development of integrated prognostic models to refine patient stratification and optimize treatment outcomes. Full article

Background/Objectives: Physical literacy (PL) is a multidimensional construct that supports lifelong engagement in physical activity, while physical fitness (PF) represents a key health-related outcome and an important component of PL in early childhood. Evidence on the relationship between PL and PF in preschool-aged children is still limited, particularly in Croatia. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the association between PL and PF in preschool children and to explore age- and gender-related differences. Methods: A total of 103 preschool children (58 girls and 45 boys aged 4–6) participated in this cross-sectional study. PL was assessed using Physical Literacy in Children Questionnaire (PL-C Quest), covering physical, psychological, social, and cognitive domains, while PF and anthropometric variables were measured using the PREFIT test battery. Age and gender effects were analyzed using aligned rank transform ANOVA, while associations between PL domains and PF variables were examined using Spearman’s rank correlations. Results: No significant gender differences were observed in PL or PF variables, except for cardiorespiratory endurance among 6-year-olds. Age had a significant effect on most PF indicators, with moderate-to-large effect sizes, but not on PL scores. Significant associations between PL and PF were age-dependent, with the strongest and most consistent correlations observed in 5-year-old children, particularly between total PL and shuttle run performance (ρ = 0.46, p < 0.01). Conclusions: PF improves markedly with age during the preschool period, whereas PL appears relatively stable. Modest, but meaningful associations between PL and PF highlight the importance of early, holistic movement experiences that support not only physical development but also motivation, confidence, and understanding of physical activity. Future studies should investigate the parental influence on children’s PL and PF. Full article

The joint influence of digital adoption in corporate governance and its impact on external assurance is a critical and emerging nexus in the literature concerning auditing and technological innovation, especially in volatile markets. Building on agency theory and resource dependence theory, this study investigates the nexus between corporate digital transformation (DT) and audit quality (AQ), while examining the moderating role of AC characteristics—specifically size, gender diversity, expertise, and activity—within the Egyptian context. Utilizing a sample of 120 non-financial firms listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) from 2022 to 2024 (360 firm-year observations), the analysis employs Robust Least Squares (M-estimation) and Panel EGLS to ensure resilience against outliers and heteroscedasticity. The empirical findings provide robust evidence that digital transformation significantly enhances audit quality by constraining discretionary accruals, supporting the premise that technological integration improves monitoring and transparency. Moreover, the results reveal that the audit committee acts as a pivotal positive moderator, strengthening the digitalization-audit quality relationship; this impact is most pronounced in firms with larger, more gender-diverse, and financially expert audit committees. While audit committee activity shows a reactive correlation with accruals, its interaction remains essential for continuous monitoring in digital environments. Ultimately, this study offers novel insights for regulators and firms in emerging economies, highlighting that the benefits of technological adoption in financial reporting are maximized only when complemented by robust internal governance mechanisms, necessitating simultaneous investment in digital infrastructure and the fortification of audit committee attributes to ensure sustained audit market efficiency. Full article