Search Results (4,979)

Traditional methods for documenting cultural heritage often remain inadequate for preserving structural data, making it virtually impossible to archive architectural works that no longer survive. This study investigates the use of augmented reality (AR) technology to improve the sustainability of architectural heritage in the digital environment. The former People’s House (Halkevi) building, once located in Konya, Türkiye but no longer standing, was selected as the case study. Drawing on available photographs and historical documents, a 3D model of the building was generated using Autodesk Revit, further refined in 3ds Max, and transferred to an interactive digital platform via AR applications (ARki, Augmentecture, and a custom AR solution developed with Unity 3D + Vuforia). These applications offer an accessible solution for art and architectural historians thanks to their user-friendly interfaces and the fact that they do not require coding knowledge. Among the tested AR platforms, the Unity + Vuforia-based application yielded the most consistent performance, especially in terms of interactivity, visual stability, and environ-mental integration. The findings indicate that augmented reality can serve as a practical tool for the digital documentation of cultural heritage, demonstrating that researchers without advanced technical expertise can effectively utilize these technologies. This study contributes to digital heritage preservation by proposing a simplified AR-based methodology that reduces the need for cross-disciplinary expertise, enabling wider participation of local stakeholders in the documentation and visualization of lost architectural heritage. Full article

Cannabis sativa is a crop which has been cultivated since ancient times, with important cultural and industrial value. Due to its substantial economic impact, cannabis has attracted widespread scientific attention. A pan-genome is a significant tool for breeding, because it provides a comprehensive representation of genetic diversity. To provide a valuable tool for Cannabis breeding, we constructed a Cannabis pan-genome based on 113 accessions. A total of 24,679,380 bp of non-reference-genome sequences were assembled, identifying 1313 protein-coding genes. Using pan-genome analyses, a total of 32,428 gene presence/absence variations (PAVs) were obtained, and gene loss was recovered during the domestication of Cannabis. By partitioning the pan-genome using PAVs, a total of 23,309 core genes were identified, accounting for 71.88% of all genes in the pan-genome. In particular, there were 7148 flexible genes, making up 22.05% of the pan-genome. The flexible genes were associated with adaptive traits, including stress resistance and disease resistance in Cannabis. Population genetic analysis presented gene distribution, gene flow, and gene specificity on a pan-genome level. These results provide important genetic basis, functional genes, and guidance for Cannabis breeding. Full article

This study examines the role of cultural heritage sites as facilitators of place making within the evolving paradigm of smart city development. As cities worldwide adopt data-driven models of governance, integrating cultural identity and heritage becomes increasingly critical. This research addresses the conceptual and practical gap in understanding how heritage can support inclusive, sustainable, and meaningful urban transformation in smart city contexts. To do so, it selects Geelong in Australia as a case study. The study then employs a qualitative methodology drawing on semi-structured interviews with experts and professionals across urban planning, architecture, sustainability, and heritage management. Thematic analysis derived five key themes: heritage as an identity anchor, digital technologies enhancing cultural narratives, community engagement, adaptive reuse, and economic-policy integration. Findings highlight that heritage sites are dynamic assets that foster community identity, historical continuity, and digital storytelling. Digital tools enhance the visibility and accessibility of heritage, while adaptive reuse strategies align cultural preservation with environmental sustainability and economic growth. The resulting conceptual and assessment framework positions heritage both as a cultural and functional urban asset, offering actionable insights for planners, policymakers, and designers aiming to create smart cities that are not only technologically advanced but also socially inclusive and culturally grounded. Full article

Given its considerable cultural, historical, and economic value, built heritage requires the application of modern techniques for effective documentation and conservation. While multiple sensors are available for 3D modeling, laser scanning remains the most commonly employed due to its efficiency, precision, and ability to comprehensively capture the building’s geometry, surface textures, and structural details. This results in highly detailed 3D representations that are very important for accurate documentation, analysis, and conservation planning. This study investigates the complementary potential of different 3D modeling approaches for the digital representation of the Dosoftei House in Iasi, a monument of historical significance. For this purpose, an integrated point cloud was created based on a mobile hand-held laser scanner (HMLS), i.e., the FJD Trion P1 and a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS), i.e., the Maptek I-Site 8820 long-range laser scanner, the latter specifically used to capture the roof structures. Based on this dataset, a parametric model was created in Revit, supported by panoramic images, allowing for a structured representation useful in technical documentation and heritage management. In parallel, a mesh model was generated in CloudCompare using Poisson surface reconstruction. The comparison of the two methods highlights the high geometric accuracy of the mesh model and the Building Information Modeling (BIM) model’s capability to efficiently manage information linked to architectural elements. While the mesh provides detailed geometry, the BIM model excels in information organization and supports informed decision-making in conservation efforts. This research proposes leveraging the advantages of both methods within an integrated workflow, applicable on a larger scale in architectural heritage conservation projects. Full article

Background: School lunch programs play a crucial role in shaping the nutritional status and academic performance of children, making them a cornerstone of public health initiatives worldwide. Objective: To elucidate emerging trends and propose a comprehensive framework for free school lunch as a nutrition policy through a combined bibliometric approach and critical review. Methods: A bibliometric analysis was performed to identify key thematic areas, influential research, and knowledge gaps from global literature databases, followed by a critical review synthesizing insights on nutritional adequacy, socio-cultural considerations, policy effectiveness, and innovative practices in free school meal programs. Results: The analysis revealed an increasing focus on sustainability, food waste management, and integration of nutrition education within school curricula, alongside notable disparities in implementation and accessibility, particularly in low-income regions. Conclusions: We propose a future-oriented framework emphasizing stakeholder collaboration, culturally adaptive meal designs, and utilization of technology for personalized nutrition strategies, contributing to the optimization of school lunch programs and advancement of sustainable development goals, particularly Zero Hunger and Quality Education. Full article

Bacterial cellulose (BC), a nanostructured biopolymer produced by Komagateibacter spp., exhibits remarkable mechanical strength, purity, and biocompatibility, making it highly attractive for applications in biomedicine, food, and sustainable materials. Despite its potential, monoculture fermentation suffers from low yield and limited scalability. This review highlights the innovative application of co-culture fermentations as a novel strategy, where Komagataeibacter is paired with complementary microorganisms such as yeasts, lactic acid bacteria, and photosynthetic microbes. This approach has emerged as a promising solution to overcome the limitations of monoculture by enhancing BC productivity, tailoring material properties, and improving sustainability. We explore the synergistic interactions within co-cultures, including metabolic cross-feeding and in situ polymer integration, while also addressing critical challenges such as microbial stability and operational complexity. Unlike previous reviews focused primarily on BC biosynthesis, applications, or genetic engineering, this article emphasizes co-culture fermentation with Komagataeibacter as a novel and underexplored strategy to improve the yield, functionality, and scalability of BC production. Full article

The integration of virtual reality, digital twins, and spatial behavior-tracking technologies is reshaping cultural exhibition architecture, shifting the design focus from functional efficiency to immersive, user-centered experiences. However, the behavioral dynamics within these interactive environments remain insufficiently addressed. This study proposes a behavior-oriented spatial typology grounded in Bitgood’s attention–value model, which maps the psychological stages—Attraction, Hold, Engagement, and Exit—onto four spatial categories: Threshold Space, Transitional Space, Narrative Focus Space, and Closure Space. Each represents a distinct phase of perceptual and behavioral response along the exhibition sequence. A mixed-method approach was employed, combining eye-tracking experiments with structured questionnaires to capture both physiological reactions and subjective evaluations. Key spatial variables—enclosure (X₁), visual corridors (X₂), spatial scale (X₃), and light–shadow articulation (X₄)—were analyzed using multiple regression to assess their impact on interest and dwell time. The results show that enclosure (α = −0.094; β = −0.319) and light–shadow articulation (α = −0.057; β = 0.156), respectively, decreased interest and increased dwell time, while spatial scale (α = 0.042; β = 0.186) positively affected both. Visual corridors had minimal influence (α = −0.007; β = 0.022). These spatial effects align with the proposed typology: Threshold Spaces support rapid orientation and exploratory behavior, while Transitional Spaces aid navigation but reduce sustained attention. Narrative Focus Spaces enhance cognitive engagement and decision making, and Closure Spaces foster emotional resolution and extended presence. These findings validate the proposed typology and establish a quantifiable link between spatial attributes and visitor behavior, offering a practical framework for optimizing immersive exhibition sequences. Full article

The structural safety monitoring of industrial heritage is of great significance for global urban renewal and the preservation of cultural heritage. However, traditional tilt monitoring methods suffer from limited accuracy, low efficiency, poor global perception, and a lack of intelligence, making them inadequate for meeting the tilt monitoring requirements of super-high-rise industrial heritage chimneys. To address these issues, this study proposes a tilt monitoring method for super-high-rise industrial heritage chimneys based on LiDAR point clouds. Firstly, LiDAR point cloud data were acquired using a ground-based LiDAR measurement system. This system captures high-density point clouds and precise spatial attitude data, synchronizes multi-source timestamps, and transmits data remotely in real time via 5G, where a data preprocessing program generates valid high-precision point cloud data. Secondly, multiple cross-section slicing segmentation strategies are designed, and an automated tilt monitoring algorithm framework with adaptive slicing and collaborative optimization is constructed. This algorithm framework can adaptively extract slice contours and fit the central axes. By integrating adaptive slicing, residual feedback adjustment, and dynamic weight updating mechanisms, the intelligent extraction of the unit direction vector of the central axis is enabled. Finally, the unit direction vector is operated with the x- and z-axes through vector calculations to obtain the tilt-azimuth, tilt-angle, verticality, and verticality deviation of the central axis, followed by an accuracy evaluation. On-site experimental validation was conducted on a super-high-rise industrial heritage chimney. The results show that, compared with the results from the traditional method, the relative errors of the tilt angle, verticality, and verticality deviation of the industrial heritage chimney obtained by the proposed method are only 9.45%, while the relative error of the corresponding tilt-azimuth is only 0.004%. The proposed method enables high-precision, non-contact, and globally perceptive tilt monitoring of super-high-rise industrial heritage chimneys, providing a feasible technical approach for structural safety assessment and preservation. Full article

Background/Objectives: Cultural diversity in healthcare settings is rapidly increasing, posing complex ethical and communication challenges for nurses. Competence in navigating cultural differences, alongside ethical sensitivity, is essential to delivering patient-centered care. This study aimed to examine the relationship between nurses’ cultural competence—measured as transcultural self-efficacy—and their knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning healthcare ethics in primary care settings in Greece. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 492 nurses using validated Greek versions of the Transcultural Self-Efficacy Tool (TSET–Gr) and the Nurses’ Ethics Questionnaire (NEQ–Gr). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to assess correlations and predictive relationships between demographic variables, cultural self-efficacy subscales, and ethical constructs. Results: Nurses demonstrated moderate to high levels of cultural self-efficacy and ethical sensitivity. Affective self-efficacy was the highest-rated subscale and showed strong positive associations with ethical knowledge (r = 0.27, p < 0.001) and ethical attitudes (r = 0.23, p < 0.001). Multivariable linear regression analysis revealed that higher educational attainment significantly predicted both practical (b = 0.12, p = 0.045) and affective self-efficacy (b = 0.15, p = 0.002), as well as better ethical knowledge and attitudes. Notably, more years of experience were associated with lower self-perceived cultural competence. Nurses working in multicultural regions reported more favorable ethical orientations. Conclusions: Cultural competence, particularly emotional readiness to engage with cultural diversity, is a significant predictor of ethical awareness and behavior in nursing practice. Investment in continuous professional development, education, and supportive work environments is essential for cultivating both ethical sensitivity and culturally responsive care. Full article

Aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) plays a pivotal role in understanding the nuances of sentiment expressed in text, particularly in the context of diverse languages and cultures. This paper presents a novel deep convolutional neural network (CNN)-based model tailored for aspect and polarity classification in Hausa movie reviews, as Hausa is an underrepresented language with limited resources and presence in sentiment analysis research. One of the primary implications of this work is the creation of a comprehensive Hausa ABSA dataset, which addresses a significant gap in the availability of resources for sentiment analysis in underrepresented languages. This dataset fosters a more inclusive sentiment analysis landscape and advances research in languages with limited resources. The collected dataset was first preprocessed using Sci-Kit Learn to perform TF-IDF transformation for extracting feature word vector weights. Aspect-level feature ontology words within the analyzed text were derived, and the sentiment of the reviewed texts was manually annotated. The proposed model combines convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with an attention mechanism to aid aspect word prediction. The model utilizes sentences from the corpus and feature words as vector inputs to enhance prediction accuracy. The proposed model leverages the advantages of the convolutional and attention layers to extract contextual information and sentiment polarities from Hausa movie reviews. The performance demonstrates the applicability of such models to underrepresented languages. With 91% accuracy on aspect term extraction and 92% on sentiment polarity classification, the model excels in aspect identification and sentiment analysis, offering insights into specific aspects of interest and their associated sentiments. The proposed model outperformed traditional machine models in both aspect word and polarity prediction. Through the creation of the Hausa ABSA dataset and the development of an effective model, this study makes significant advances in ABSA research. It has wide-ranging implications for the sentiment analysis field in the context of underrepresented languages. Full article

The ribosome in eukaryotic cells is a macromolecular complex composed of four ribonucleic acids and over 80 proteins. This organelle facilitates protein synthesis in cells, and its activity is strongly upregulated in human cancers. Immune cells, a variety of cellular stressors and numerous structurally and mechanistically distinct anti-cancer agents have been shown to induce ribosomal RNA degradation in tumour cells in vitro and in vivo—a phenomenon we termed “RNA disruption”. RNA disruption can be quantified in cultured cell lines and patient samples using the RNA disruption assay (RDA). Unlike well-known high-throughput anti-cancer drug sensitivity assays, RDA can distinguish between dying and arrested tumour cells, making it an attractive assay for anti-cancer drug discovery and development. Low tumour RNA disruption during neoadjuvant chemotherapy (as measured using RDA) is strongly associated with residual disease and reduced disease-free survival, making it a potentially valuable chemo-resistance assessment tool. High RNA disruption may also indicate chemo-responsiveness. RDA holds the prospect of being a useful tool to escalate or de-escalate neoadjuvant chemotherapy in cancer patients. Moreover, the assay’s ability to predict treatment outcomes during neoadjuvant chemotherapy may permit its use in adaptive clinical trials and in drug approval by regulatory agencies. This review provides insight into the cellular processes involved in chemotherapy-induced RNA disruption. It also describes the results of clinical studies on tumour RNA disruption in cancer patients and suggests possible approaches that could be considered for the utilization of RDAs in the clinical management of breast cancer patients undergoing current neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimens. Full article

Assessment of cultural ecosystem services (CESs) is a key component in advancing the sustainable development of urban ecosystems. Mapping the spatial distribution of CESs provides spatially explicit insights for urban landscape planning. However, most assessments lack regional adaptability, particularly in cities with pronounced environmental and cultural heterogeneity. To address this gap, this study focused on the central urban area of Lhasa, using communities as units to develop a tailored CES assessment framework. The framework integrated the MaxEnt model with multi-source indicators to analyze the spatial distribution of five CES categories and their relationships with environmental variables. Spatial statistics and classification at community level informed the CES spatial optimization strategies. Results indicated that high-value CES areas were predominantly concentrated in the old city cluster, typified by Barkhor and Jibenggang subdistricts, following an east–west spatial pattern along the Lhasa River. Distance to tourist spot contributed 78.3% to cultural heritage, 86.1% to spirit and religion, and 42.2% to ecotourism and aesthetic services, making it the most influential environmental variable. At the community level, CESs exhibited a distinct spatial gradient, with higher values in the central area and lower values in the eastern and western peripheries. For the ecotourism and aesthetic category, 61.47% of the community area was classified as low service, whereas only 1.48% and 7.33% were identified as excellent and high. Moreover, communities within subdistricts such as Barkhor and Zhaxi demonstrated excellent service across four CES categories, with notably lower performance in the health category. This study presents a quantitative and adaptable framework and planning guidance to support the sustainable development of CESs in cities with similar characteristics. Full article

This study aims to systematically reveal, from the perspective of organizational scale, the differences between large and small architectural design organizations in China in terms of characteristics of production activities, technological capabilities and innovation levels, resource integration capabilities, and client groups, and to quantify the priority order of clients’ attention to architectural design products, thereby providing a reference for industry structure optimization and strategic decision making. This research combines case analysis and comparative study to construct a four-dimensional comparative framework. The results show that large design organizations, leveraging their advantages in technological research and development as well as resource integration, focus on large-scale complex projects, technology-driven projects, cultural landmark projects, and multi-stakeholder collaborative projects, primarily serving government agencies and large enterprises. In contrast, small design organizations excel in flexibility, concentrating on small-scale simple projects, specialized niche projects, localized projects, and short-cycle, low-budget projects, serving individual owners and small businesses. Furthermore, this study adopts the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to establish an evaluation model. Twenty experts from architectural design organizations, construction organizations, and research institutions were invited to score the survey questionnaires, and quantitative weight analysis was performed. The research findings provide support for the optimization of the industry. Full article

Heritage landscapes endure not through the preservation of fixed forms but through the capacity to adapt to changing social, political, economic, and environmental conditions. Conservation policies that privilege static ideals of authenticity risk undermining the very systems they aim to protect. This paper advances a model of shared stewardship that links conservation of heritage to support for livelihoods, functional flexibility, and community authority in decision-making. Using the Ifugao Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordillera as a case study, we integrate archaeological, ethnographic, spatial, and agricultural economic evidence to examine the terraces as a dynamic socio-ecological system. Archaeological findings and oral histories show that wet-rice agriculture expanded in the 17th century, replacing earlier taro-based systems and incorporating swidden fields, managed forests, and ritual obligations. Contemporary changes such as the shift from heirloom tinawon rice to commercial crops, the impacts of labor migration, and climate variability reflect long-standing adaptive strategies rather than cultural decline. Comparative cases from other UNESCO and heritage sites demonstrate that economic viability, adaptability, and local governance are essential to sustaining long-inhabited agricultural landscapes. We thus argue that the Ifugao terraces, like their global counterparts, should be conserved as living systems whose cultural continuity depends on their ability to respond to present and future challenges. Full article

The pursuit of universal, symmetric semantic representations within large language models (LLMs) faces a fundamental challenge: the inherent asymmetry of natural languages. Different languages exhibit vast disparities in syntactic structures, lexical choices, and cultural nuances, making the creation of a truly shared, symmetric embedding space a non-trivial task. This paper aims to address this critical problem by introducing a novel framework to forge robust and symmetric multilingual sentence embeddings. Our approach, named DACL (Dynamic Asymmetric Contrastive Learning), is anchored in two powerful asymmetric learning paradigms: Contrastive Learning and Dynamic Curriculum Learning (DCL). We extend Contrastive Learning to the multilingual context, where it asymmetrically treats semantically equivalent sentences from different languages (positive pairs) and sentences with distinct meanings (negative pairs) to enforce semantic symmetry in the target embedding space. To further refine this process, we incorporate Dynamic Curriculum Learning, which introduces a second layer of asymmetry by dynamically scheduling training instances from easy to hard. This dual-asymmetric strategy enables the model to progressively master complex cross-lingual relationships, starting with more obvious semantic equivalences and advancing to subtler ones. Our comprehensive experiments on benchmark cross-lingual tasks, including sentence retrieval and cross-lingual classification (XNLI, PAWS-X, MLDoc, MARC), demonstrate that DACL significantly outperforms a wide range of established baselines. The results validate our dual-asymmetric framework as a highly effective approach for forging robust multilingual embeddings, particularly excelling in tasks involving complex linguistic asymmetries. Ultimately, this work contributes a novel dual-asymmetric learning framework that effectively leverages linguistic asymmetry to achieve robust semantic symmetry across languages. It offers valuable insights for developing more capable, fair, and interpretable multilingual LLMs, emphasizing that deliberately leveraging asymmetry in the learning process is a highly effective strategy. Full article