Search Results (175)

Low-carbon and smart agriculture talent cultivation requires structural conditions that vary widely across countries. This study develops the Agricultural Talent Cultivation Readiness Index (ATCRI) as a proxy-based structural diagnostic tool for approximating the multi-dimensional enabling conditions and bottlenecks that shape whether SDG-linked agricultural education transformation can be operationalized at scale. ATCRI covers 160 countries across four interdependent dimensions: Education and Research, Digital/Energy/Enabling Infrastructure, Green Transition Pressure, and Innovation/Institutional Capacity. Results indicate a highly uneven global distribution: high transition pressure does not automatically translate into high readiness, with 17 countries exhibiting a pressure–capacity mismatch. China ranks 21st globally, showing a hybrid profile in which education and innovation capacity are strong while digital delivery infrastructure remains a relative bottleneck. Survey evidence from Chinese crop science students is consistent with this interpretation, revealing elevated practice-oriented reform demand where macro-level structural gaps are sharpest. ATCRI is intended as a diagnostic framework for identifying structural bottlenecks, not as a definitive measure of educational quality or reform outcomes. 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

In this paper, we mainly introduce the notion of a braided algebraic group, which unifies the notions of a braided Hopf algebra with an integral, a Hopf group-coalgebra with a group-integral and an algebraic quantum group. For this, we introduce the notion of braided multiplier rings and study their properties. Then we study some structural properties of a braided multiplier algebra with a nontrivial example. Full article

Education in intangible cultural heritage (ICH) skills plays a vital role in cultural transmission and innovation, yet it faces persistent structural tension between the authenticity of regional culture and the standardization of modern educational systems. Drawing on Bourdieu’s field theory, this study examines the dynamic interaction of field, capital, and habitus within intangible cultural heritage skills education in Chinese higher education. Employing an exploratory qualitative single-case study design, the research investigates the ethnic arts curriculum at Southwest Minzu University, with data drawn from documentary evidence, teaching artifacts, and participant observation. The findings reveal a composite educational field structured by the intersection of native cultural, educational institutional, and cultural reproduction fields, within which cultural capital in its embodied, objectified, and institutionalized forms is transformed into symbolic and social capital through teaching practices, creative production, and institutional certification. The study further identifies a practical pathway extending from cultural capital accumulation to symbolic capital acquisition and ultimately to social capital expansion. Notably, the analysis empirically identifies the role of emotional persons—actors whose habitus is shaped by institutionally mandated affective cultivation, as articulated in the university’s formal talent training program—in mediating capital reproduction and habitus formation. This study offers a systematic theoretical framework for understanding the internal operational mechanisms of intangible cultural heritage skills education and provides practical insights for balancing cultural authenticity with educational standardization in the context of globalization. Full article

Currently, the research on academic early warning assessment and prediction for college students under the credit system in colleges and universities is mainly based on methods such as machine learning. However, the existing prediction models often have problems such as difficulty in network structure, parameter selection, and extraction of context time series information. In response to these issues, this study, based on students’ historical academic performance, proposes LTBoost, a novel framework of the XGBoost classification prediction model. The proposed model framework integrates the BiLSTM module to handle the time series information in the original data. It also integrates the proposed Enhanced Transformer module to perceive global information and obtain enhanced features. Through experiments, the LTBoost prediction model was compared with four other machine learning algorithms. The accuracy of the proposed LTBoost classification prediction model increased by 0.7% to 99.4%, demonstrating a good prediction effect on whether students are at risk of prolonging their studies. It provides a new paradigm and path for the construction of talent cultivation plans in credit-based universities. Full article

Equity in gifted education remains a persistent international challenge, particularly regarding the “excellence gap” in advanced achievement and long-term attainment. This study investigates the supports and barriers shaping the talent development of socio-economically disadvantaged gifted students in Taiwan. Using a retrospective narrative inquiry, we analyzed the life stories of 25 alumni from the “Bright Minds Award Program,” a long-term initiative providing financial aid, mentorship, and enrichment opportunities for high-ability learners from low-income households. Findings indicate that participants often displayed early academic promise, yet their developmental trajectories were continuously negotiated under structural constraints (limited material and cultural resources, restricted access to domain-specific cultivation, and opportunity gaps across educational transitions) and the psychosocial burden of poverty (shame, stigma management, and identity strain). Drawing on the Actiotope Model of Giftedness, we identify how exogenous educational capital (e.g., scholarships, information brokerage, mentoring networks) and endogenous learning capital (e.g., resilience, self-regulation, goal persistence) interact to stabilize—or destabilize—developmental pathways. A novel contribution is the emergence of “Acting Middle Class” as a coping mechanism through which participants navigated social stigma and the hidden curriculum of elite educational settings. We argue that effective intervention requires not only resource provision but sustained “educational scaffolding” that is psychologically safe and institutionally stigma-sensitive. Implications are discussed for talent development research, school practice, and equity-oriented policy designs aimed at preventing talent attrition and promoting developmental justice. Full article

The sustainable enhancement of regional science and technology industrial competitiveness is an important objective of artificial intelligence (AI) policy. However, how different AI policy instruments can be combined to achieve this goal remains insufficiently understood. This study aims to address this issue by identifying the configurational pathways through which combinations of AI policy instruments contribute to the sustainable enhancement of regional science and technology industrial competitiveness. Based on a policy instrument framework, we analyze AI policies issued by provincial-level governments in China and apply fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), which is appropriate for examining the combined effects of multiple policy instruments. The results show that no single policy instrument is sufficient to produce high regional science and technology industrial competitiveness. Instead, sustained competitiveness is achieved through multiple equivalent configurations of policy instruments. Three driving pathways are identified—(supply and demand)-environmental resonance, demand-driven (supply-environmental) assurance, and supply–demand complementarity—covering five specific configurations. The variation across configurations indicates that effective AI policy mixes are contingent on regional resource endowments and development conditions. Technology R&D support, talent cultivation and collaboration, and application demonstration and promotion emerge as the most recurrent core conditions across configurations. Accordingly, local governments should develop coordinated AI policy mixes, align differentiated policy pathways with regional conditions, and prioritize technology R&D support, talent cultivation and collaboration, and application demonstration and promotion to sustain long-term regional competitiveness. Full article

Driven by global sustainable development and intelligent technological innovation, the geotechnical engineering industry is transforming toward the direction of “Intelligent technology + Low-carbon circulation + Ecological friendliness”, creating an urgent demand for interdisciplinary talents with corresponding professional capabilities and sustainable awareness. To address the deficiencies in traditional postgraduate education (e.g., disjointed knowledge systems, inadequate practice oriented to Sustainable Geotechnical Engineering (SGE), and superficial integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), this study constructs a “Four-Dimensional and Four-Stage” integrated talent training model based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Taking “Intelligent Technology—Geotechnical Theory—SGE Scenarios—ESD Literacy” as its core framework and adopting a progressive path of “Basic Cognition—Collaborative Application—Innovative Development—Sustainable Transformation”, this model was piloted among 23 postgraduate students through the course titled “Intelligent Design and Construction of Geotechnical Engineering”. The results show that all the students obtained officially granted software copyrights, their core professional capabilities were significantly improved, 100% of them applied their research achievements to SGE-related practices, and their ESD literacy was notably enhanced. Breaking through the traditional “knowledge-practice” dualistic framework of engineering education, this model achieves the in-depth integration of professional training and sustainable awareness cultivation and thus provides a replicable paradigm for the ESD education of interdisciplinary postgraduate students in the intelligent age. Full article

The shortage of interdisciplinary talent is a critical bottleneck constraining the development of smart agriculture. Taking Jiangsu Province as a case study, this research constructs and empirically validates an ecosystem model for cultivating interdisciplinary talent oriented toward smart agriculture. In the theoretical construction phase, an initial three-dimensional model covering “core actors,” “supportive environment,” and “resource elements” was proposed based on ecosystem theory and literature review. This model was subsequently refined through in-depth interviews (March–August 2024, 60–120 min each) and thematic analysis with 58 diverse stakeholders across 13 prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu Province, encompassing universities, agribusinesses, government agencies, research institutes, and frontline practitioners. In the empirical testing phase, structural equation modeling was employed to analyze 382 valid questionnaire responses covering six dimensions: policy environment, market environment, university–enterprise collaboration, curriculum resources, platform resources, and talent cultivation effectiveness (20 items in total). The findings indicate that: (1) the ecosystem model demonstrates good fit and strong explanatory power, with a pronounced “university–enterprise” dual-core driving effect; (2) government policy guidance and platform construction play pivotal supportive roles; (3) market demand and industrial policy constitute critical external driving forces; and (4) “industry–education integrated practice platforms” together with “modular interdisciplinary curricula” exert the most direct positive influence on cultivation outcomes. Based on these findings, this study offers systematic recommendations from three perspectives—mechanism coordination, policy optimization, and resource allocation—providing a theoretically grounded and practically referenced solution for cultivating interdisciplinary talent in smart agriculture. Full article

Under the dual carbon strategy and the sweeping tide of digital transformation in education, higher education confronts an urgent imperative: cultivating talent equipped with interdisciplinary skills and sustainable decision-making capabilities. To meet this critical challenge, this study pioneers the PAMD (Patient Capital–Accounting–Matrix–Development) interdisciplinary teaching framework. Rooted firmly in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) principles, PAMD uniquely weaves together patient capital, carbon asset accounting, and linear algebra matrix modeling. Utilizing a quasi-experimental design with undergraduate business students, we implemented “Carbon Asset Accounting and Low-Carbon Transition Investment Analysis” as a case study. We rigorously evaluated teaching effectiveness across academic performance, competency, and cognitive attitude dimensions using Welch’s t-test, Hedges’ g, and ANCOVA. After controlling for baseline scores, the experimental group significantly surpassed the control group in comprehensive decision-making (81.22 vs. 72.41, g = 0.71) and matrix modeling competency (3.74 vs. 3.22, g = 0.77). The experimental cohort also demonstrated consistent gains in carbon accounting reporting precision and data representation clarity. Cognitive assessments revealed moderate effect sizes for both low-carbon investment literacy and interdisciplinary learning interest. These compelling results demonstrate that embedding a long-term value orientation into accounting representation and matrix modeling powerfully cultivates students’ ability to transfer interdisciplinary knowledge and make sound sustainable decisions within complex contexts. This study offers a robust, evidence-based, and replicable pathway for driving sustainability-oriented interdisciplinary reform within business education. Full article

Achieving high-level self-reliance in science and technology requires a science and technology finance ecosystem that is aligned with the needs of technological innovation. To overcome bottlenecks in core technologies, firms must accelerate R&D, strengthen their core competitiveness, and pursue innovation-led, quality-oriented development. Using provincial-level data for 2013–2023, this paper constructs an index system for China’s science and technology finance ecosystem from four dimensions: science and technology financial services, science and technology capital markets, science and technology financial organizations, and government guidance for science and technology. We then measure the development level of this ecosystem and employ a panel data model to examine its impact on innovation in Specialized and Sophisticated SMEs. The results show that a more developed science and technology finance ecosystem significantly promotes innovation in these firms, with a stronger effect on substantive innovation than on strategic innovation. These findings remain robust across a series of robustness checks. Further analysis reveals significant heterogeneity across regions and levels of government intervention: the positive effect is stronger in eastern China and in regions with weaker government intervention. Mechanism tests indicate that the science and technology finance ecosystem promotes innovation by facilitating the accumulation of R&D capital and the agglomeration of scientific and technological talent. This study enriches the literature on science and technology finance ecosystems and SME innovation, and provides policy-relevant evidence for ecosystem development and the cultivation of Specialized and Sophisticated SMEs. Full article

In response to problems inherent in conventional hydraulic engineering education including compartmentalized courses, fragmented knowledge delivery, overlapping and omitted content, and insufficient development of students’ integrated practical competencies this study develops an instructional model for a coordinated curriculum group based on the OBE-BOPPPS teaching theory. The curriculum cluster model aims to integrate interdisciplinary course content, restructure curriculum structure hierarchy, eliminate disciplinary barriers, and establish clear stratified and interrelated knowledge relationships. The model centers on competency development, constructing a three-dimensional “agent–objective” system that connects “teacher–student–curriculum” with “knowledge–competency–literacy.” It further establishes a multi-indicator evaluation system encompassing teachers, students, and courses. The comprehensive evaluation employing Principal Component Analysis, Entropy Weight Method, and CRITIC method demonstrates that the curriculum group teaching model significantly outperforms traditional course-based instruction in transcending disciplinary boundaries, enhancing knowledge systematicity, improving teaching precision, and strengthening knowledge acquisition as well as students’ comprehensive competencies. This approach achieves dynamic optimization and precision feedback in the teaching process, effectively facilitating the systematic transfer of knowledge and the holistic development of students’ innovative practical abilities. It thereby provides a scientific pathway and empirical support for the reform of hydraulic engineering education and the cultivation of high-quality talent. Full article

The rise of the digital economy necessitates a scientific framework for evaluating rural logistics capacity, a critical enabler of agricultural and rural modernization. This study conceptualizes “rural logistics capacity in the digital economy” and constructs an evaluation system comprising four primary and fourteen secondary indicators. Using provincial panel data from the China Statistical Yearbook (2012–2023) and the entropy-weighted fuzzy matter-element method, we systematically assess the spatiotemporal evolution of China’s rural logistics capacity and empirically examine its direct impact on rural economic resilience. The results show that: (1) Rural logistics capacity in China has improved overall but remains regionally uneven, with persistent bottlenecks in digital infrastructure and operational capabilities; (2) Rural logistics capacity significantly enhances rural economic resilience, with stronger effects observed in western regions and non-major grain-producing areas. These findings suggest that policymakers should adopt region-specific strategies, prioritize digital infrastructure development, promote logistics technology innovation, and strengthen mechanisms for talent cultivation and interregional coordination. Such measures are essential for comprehensively upgrading rural logistics capacity, reinforcing rural economic resilience, and fostering the sustainable development of rural logistics systems. Full article

With the ongoing reform of higher education, the University Practice Education Community (UPEC) has become a crucial platform for advancing collaborative education and innovating talent cultivation models. However, research remains insufficient on the influencing factors of UPEC’s sustainable development and, in particular, on how these factors interact with one another. From a complex systems perspective, this study conceptualizes UPEC as a dynamic and interconnected system in which multiple factors jointly shape sustainability outcomes. Accordingly, the overall objective is to (i) identify key influencing factors, (ii) model and quantify their interrelationships, and (iii) pinpoint critical factors and interaction pathways that structure UPEC sustainability. Adopting this holistic view, we integrate literature review, expert interviews, questionnaire surveys, and social network analysis (SNA) to systematically identify and analyze twenty influencing factors. SNA, as a systems-oriented analytical tool, enables the mapping of structural relationships and interaction pathways among factors, revealing how these interdependencies collectively form the governance ecosystem of UPEC. The results identify eight key factors—including willingness for multi-stakeholder collaboration, stability of cooperation mechanisms, policy and institutional support, effectiveness of communication and coordination mechanisms, feedback and improvement mechanisms, enthusiasm of industry and enterprise participation, local government support, and influence of public opinion—along with five critical paths linking subsystems through chain effects. Based on this diagnostic evidence, this study further outlines strategy implications to support practice-oriented improvement, while the primary contribution remains the identification of key factors and critical interaction structures underlying UPEC sustainability. Full article

In the age of innovation, the mission of higher education is to cultivate innovative talent. Teachers’ innovative support behaviors have a significant impact on students’ emotions and creative performance. As students at art and design colleges will generally confront creative anxiety—an unfavorable emotion that affects their innovative abilities—this study aims to explore the mediating effects of creative self-efficacy and achievement motivation in the relationship between teachers’ innovative support behaviors and the creative anxiety of art and design students. Based on random cluster sampling, a questionnaire survey was used to collect 785 valid questionnaires from undergraduate art and design students attending six universities across eastern, central, and western China for the analysis of four variables: teachers’ innovative support behaviors, creative self-efficacy, achievement motivation, and creative anxiety. The results show that (1) teachers’ innovative support behaviors significantly negatively predict students’ creative anxiety (β = −0.631, p < 0.001); (2) creative self-efficacy and achievement motivation both have significant mediating effects (β = −0.241, p < 0.001; β = −0.183, p < 0.05, respectively); and (3) these two factors present a chain mediation effect. Bootstrap tests showed an indirect effect of −0.062 with a 95% confidence interval [−0.121, −0.008]; as the interval did not include zero, this chained mediating effect was significant. The results indicate that teachers’ innovative support behaviors not only have a direct effect on alleviating students’ anxiety but also have indirect effects through motivational and cognitive mechanisms, which provides a new theoretical reference with practical significance for art and design education. Full article