Sociology Study

This study explores the integration of Experienced Involvement (ExIn) in social-psychiatric care in Germany, emphasizing both the challenges and opportunities it presents. The European Leonardo da Vinci Project (2005-2007) established a curriculum for ExIn, promoting participatory structures in psychiatric services. While peer support is well-established in other European countries, Germany's experience is still developing. This research uses a mixed methods design, combining quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, to investigate the professional experiences of ExIn recovery companions and team colleagues in German clinics and support services. The findings reveal numerous benefits: for social-psychiatric services, ExIn enhances service quality, inclusivity, and accessibility; for team colleagues, it fosters reflexivity, hope, and trust, and improves self-care; for service users, it provides empowerment, easy access to support, trust, and hope, and offers credible role models. Despite these benefits, challenges such as stigmatization, lack of recognition, and financial constraints remain and require to be addressed. The study highlights the need and provides implications for a dedicated and inclusive approach to effectively implementing ExIn, ultimately enriching psychiatric care through experiential knowledge and reducing prejudice within mental health services.

This paper presents a comprehensive exploration of the complex phenomenon of homelessness in California, with a specific focus on the state's three largest cities-Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. Against the backdrop of a high cost of living and a housing market strained by insufficient affordable options, the multifaceted nature of social diversity further complicates the landscape, leading to a widespread presence of homelessness that spans both major urban centers and rural regions. Through an in-depth examination of the distinct challenges confronting each city, ranging from housing shortages to intricate social dynamics, this study seeks to illuminate the underlying factors driving homelessness and identify potential avenues for intervention. Moreover, the paper delves into the unique vulnerabilities experienced by certain demographics within the homeless population, including veterans, families with children, and LGBTQ+ individuals, highlighting the critical need for targeted solutions tailored to their specific needs. By synthesizing existing research and incorporating firsthand accounts, this research endeavor aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of homelessness in California and inform the development of comprehensive strategies aimed at fostering inclusive, sustainable communities statewide.

In this paper, I examine the Twitter accounts of right-wing extremist groups (RWEGs) in India, arguing that the abjectification of Muslim masculinities is central to the narratives of Hindu supremacist groups. The abjectification process on Twitter serves as a rhetorical device to: a) criticize and problematize Muslim masculinities; b) idealize and glorify Hindu and white masculinities; c) promote Hindu and white masculine nationalist projects; and d) unify Hindu supremacists against Muslim others. By analyzing the gender ideologies expressed implicitly or explicitly on the Twitter accounts of RWEGs, and using the "Love Jihad" conspiracy case as a focal point, I demonstrate how the abjectification of Muslim masculinities is constructed in opposition to the idealized Hindu masculinities. This study highlights the intersection of gender and nationalism in the digital discourse of Hindu supremacist groups, offering insights into the mechanisms through which social media platforms are used to reinforce and propagate Islamophobic ideologies.

For the longest time, peacemaking and peacekeeping were the only post-factum interventions to resolve armed conflicts usually related to a nation-state's borders or territory. Peacebuilding has its origins in sociology (Galtung, 1969; 1975) and is used today as a preferred concept in matters of conflict. However, this paper explores why peacebuilding, as the Secretary General of the United Nations advocates in A New Agenda for Peace, must become a nonlinear and contextual process that promotes the prevention of conflict and invites a transformative approach to addressing the linkages between peace, security, and climate. Furthermore, this paper advocates that peacebuilding grounded in social psychology and social anthropology will bring about transformative outcomes as it will build relationships at the community level and become a preventive tool to address incipient tensions within the community. Peacebuilding as social work will benefit the community and lay the necessary foundations for a sustainable future. Social workers are equipped to assess, analyze, and solve problems. Their capacity to do ongoing social diagnosis is a critical tool to prevent skirmishes degenerating into conflicts. Social work could be the much-needed resource to further develop theory and practice that contributes to active peacebuilding.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruptions in the field of education worldwide, including in the United Arab Emirates. Teachers and students had to adapt to remote learning and virtual classrooms, leading to various challenges in maintaining educational standards. The sudden transition to remote teaching could have a negative impact on students' reading abilities, especially in the Arabic language. To gain insight into the unique challenges encountered by Arabic language teachers in the UAE, a survey was conducted to explore their assessment of teaching quality, student-teacher interaction, and learning outcomes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the survey revealed a significant decline of student reading abilities and identified several major issues in online Arabic language teaching. These issues included limited interaction between students and teachers, challenges in monitoring students' class participation and performance, and challenges in effectively assessing students' reading skills. The results also demonstrated some other challenges faced by Arabic language teachers, including a lack of preparedness, a lack of subscription to relevant platforms, and a lack of resources for online learning. Several solutions to these challenges are proposed, including reevaluating the balance between depth and breadth in the curriculum, integrating language skills into the curriculum more effectively, providing more comprehensive teacher professional development, implementing student grouping strategies, utilizing retired and expert teachers in specific content areas, allocating time for interventions, and improving support from both teachers and parents to ensure the quality of online learning.

The content of current third-wave feminism differs significantly from that of previous feminist movements, which sought equal human and civil rights for women. In third-wave feminism, gender is primarily understood as a social category that is linguistically constructed. The now classic work Gender Trouble (1990) by philosopher Judith Butler is decisive for this "linguistic turn" in the social sciences. However, Butler's work is systematically based on two philosophical traditions that are already highly controversial in themselves: sophism and existentialism, linked to a pre-modern magical worldview. The following essay is a critique of these lines of tradition, followed by the question of the extent to which they can serve citizens of an enlightened society in naming and constructively addressing actual social grievances.

Mediatic sporting events are increasingly used in the geopolitical arena to gain consensus, at the same time emerging as platforms for the discussion of social issues, such as human rights and sustainability. This article presents an investigation into the role of mediatic sporting events and digital platforms in sparking political debate and social engagement to bring about change, including discussions on global and local interests and the performances of activist fans to promote debate on specific issues. The investigation employs a quantitative methodology. The initial inductive analysis uses a matrix of cultural key-frames of the empowerment and protest that accompany media sporting events, verifying their presence and effectiveness in different communication milieus. An analysis of the representation of protests on social media was performed through content analysis. The results of the investigation show that mediatic sporting events are to be understood as a diverse range of generators of multiple political effects: from the exercise of power to mass mobilization and media criticism.

Purpose: What factors influence conscious consumerism, especially related to race and gender identities? This scholarship explores three white women-led social responsibility organizations' (SROs) aspirations to encourage conscious consumerism as well as factors that influence conscious consumerism. Design/methodology/approach: Using the Black feminist thought and sustainability development theory, the data were analyzed using a thematic analysis to explore the activation of the white savior industrial complex (WSIC) in SROs. Interviews provided in-depth knowledge of the SRO culture including, but not limited to, insight on social exclusion and partnerships. Findings: Noonday Collection, Sseko Designs, and Trades of Hope, all SROs, aspire to be dedicated to people, planet, and profit and encourage conscious consumerism as a means for their customer base and sales consultants to "do their part", and yet, an unintended consequence of the SROs' work is social exclusion and white saviorism. Originality: This scholarship investigates what can be done to dismantle the overreliance of conscious consumerism in an effort to finally strip white saviorism, and its role in the white savior industrial complex (WSIC), of its power.

This paper reviews traditional understanding of well-being from both Western and Eastern cultural perspectives. First, two distinct Western traditions in defining well-being are compared, namely hedonic and eudaemonic approaches. The hedonic approach defines happiness as the maximization of pleasure, while the eudaemonic approach regards happiness as the fulfillment of a person's natural needs and overall flourishing. Second, the views of well-being in lens of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in the East are reviewed. The common and different understandings of well-being between Western and Eastern traditions are discussed as followed. Finally, two well-known operationalized definitions of well-being, that is subjective well-being and psychological well-being, proposed in the roots of Western traditions are elucidated.

The development of women’s higher education in China can be divided into four stages: emergence (1908-1948); foundation (1949-1976); accelerating development (1977-2008); and the qualitative leap (2009-2020). This work considers the principal institutional mechanisms that contributed to this development. First, flexibly planned parenthood gradually promoted gender equality and openness in society facilitated by systematic “awards, grants, and loans” initiatives to support women’s higher education economically. Second, compulsory education ensured that left-out and migrant children had access to higher education. Third, effective connectivity across different education types bridged education gaps between those with different levels of education. Fourth, China made great efforts to invite and integrate international experiences that promoted the development of women’s higher education. Looking beyond these achievements, we also discuss the future trends of women’s higher education in China.

This paper is based on the partnership between China's higher vocational colleges and industry, and obtains a large number of data on industry-college partnerships through case analysis, interviews and questionnaires. This paper analyzes the main factors that affect industry-college partnerships and the current problems and challenges, then puts forward the solutions.

The literature on international students' experiences frequently depicts them within a 'deficient' framework, highlighting their perceived lack of essential skills for managing their studies. Moreover, international students' emotional experiences are often construed as personal and psychological attributes, with their emotions viewed as transient and pathological phases that they will eventually overcome to assimilate into the local context. However, there exists a dearth of literature investigating international students' experiences from a sociological perspective, particularly concerning their emotional experiences within the broader social and political milieu. Utilizing a longitudinal research design to monitor 25 Chinese international postgraduates from multiple universities in London and Glasgow over the course of one year, this study illuminates the racialised, classed, and gendered dimensions of international students' experiences in UK higher education through an exploration of their feelings of shame. Drawing on the research findings, it is evident that power relations operate insidiously and covertly to systematically frame international students' experiences as personal or cultural 'deficiency'. This process represents a form of misrecognition, which manifests in racialised, gendered, and classed feelings of shame, experienced at the personal level as insecurity, 'stupidity', exclusion, and self-doubt. Consequently, social and cultural inequalities within higher education are often situated at the individual level.

How should we approach Die Kinder der Toten by the Austrian Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek today? And how does the 2019 film adaptation by the Nature Theatre of Oklahoma change the text's reception through focus on intermedial and intertextual elements? So far, the most insightful reviews have centered on the conceptual, contextual and textual-and thus also political aspects of this work. By focusing on intertextual and intermedial components, I hope to illustrate a few aspects of the novel that have yet to be analyzed in the scholarship on Jelinek. Drawing on Derrida's Specters of Marx and on elements of sound studies, literature studies, and film studies, I hope to demonstrate how sound can have a significant spectral presence that connects with other literary texts and media, different world regions in the past, the present and the future.

The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Promotion of Rural Revitalization has come into effect on June 1, 2021, which stipulates in Article 24 that the State shall improve the institutional mechanism for working with rural talents and promote the cultivation of high-quality farmers. In 2022 and 2023, the No. 1 document of the Central Government both proposed "implementing a plan to cultivate high-quality farmers", and in the report of the 20th Party Congress, General Secretary Xi once again emphasized "solidly promoting the revitalization of rural talents". High-quality farmers have become the core talent component of the rural talent team. In this context, there is an urgent need for in-depth research on the cultivation of high-quality farmers in China. This paper takes the cooperative leaders in Shanghai as an example, summarizes the current situation of high-quality farmer cultivation in Shanghai through quantitative and qualitative analysis, and proposes policy capital, explores the remaining problems of high-quality farmer cultivation from the micro, meso and macro aspects of policy capital, and puts forward some targeted development opinions, hoping to help the cultivation of high-quality farmers.

This proposal is focused on the first outputs of the doctoral thesis "Universitabile" based, specifically, on the relationship between educational inclusion (Ainscow & Miles, 2009) and ICT (Information and Communications Technology). Starting from a review of the literature on the role of universities as places of inclusion and confrontation with diversity (Bolt & Penketh, 2016; Moriña & Gavira, 2015), the proposal analyses the inclusion strategies by three main universities in Rome: La Sapienza, Tor Vergata and Roma Tre through a mixed method approach. We will show the answers to interviews administered to operators of dedicated services. In this context, ICT, during the Covid-19 emergency, acted as a facilitator allowing people with disabilities to benefit from distance learning, but also as a barrier, since the evidence shows that technology, if conceived as a facilitator but designed only on the basis of the characteristics of able-bodied users, can represent an obstacle factor. In this sense, as found by Tsatsou (2020), the inclusion of people with disabilities can be facilitated by the use of digital technologies. This view is also found in Valentini (2008), who emphasises how the use of digital technologies is a prerequisite for the development of concrete solutions. To conclude, it would be appropriate to rethink technology on the basis of Universal Design, i.e. "an approach to the design of technologies that pays more attention to the concept of universal usability: buildings and tools should be conceived, designed and constructed in a way to be usable by all" (Fiocco & Martinati, 2002, p. 232).

Given the everlasting significance of knowledge in society and academia, this article proposes a theoretical and methodological perspective on conceptualizing and investigating it. Specifically, it aims to explore the epistemological attitude (EA) theory and its semantic approach to assessing sources of knowledge. The article provides a concise overview of the EA theory, which advocates for a systemic perspective on cognition and knowledge. It introduces and elaborates on the core concept and model, which serve as the foundation for the proposed methodology. This methodology suggests examining knowledge objects through subjective, contextual, and epistemological realms as multi-level knowledge constructs. Emphasizing the importance of semantics in studying knowledge, categories, and meanings, the article proposes an epistemological attitude towards sources of knowledge semantic questionnaire. The article delves into the methodology, reflecting on its four consecutive stages. It begins with the formal and substantive stages, which involve selecting sources, choosing academic experts as target participants, and developing content. The procedural stage follows, in which an expert review approach is employed to assess the content validity of the method. Finally, the article discusses the semantic method, elucidating its structure, features, semantic categories, and assessment procedure. The proposed method provides a unique contribution by enabling the analysis of the epistemological and socio-psychological meanings of sources, representing them as semantic constructs.

There are different opinions about the first modern domestic debt in China. The theorists judge whether a certain public debt has modernity according to whether it has modern public debt form, ignoring the inconsistency between form and content, institutional provisions and actual implementation. The modern nature of public debt must have both the form and content of modern public debt. Based on the analysis of the issuing background, system design, collection and repayment of patriotic bonds in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, it is considered that the part of patriotic bonds subscribed by the Qing royal family is still the nature of donation and return, while the part subscribed by ordinary businessmen and people in the early Republic of China has a modern nature. The dual nature of patriotic bonds is closely related to the social background when the bonds are issued.

Ultimately, the fundamental issues of educational sciences remain economic and societal. The interactions between “business” culture, “professional” culture and training are part of this. This contribution is a reflection resulting from a longitudinal empirical research entitled: “Professionalization of an establishment in the social and medico-social field: a French monograph after the law 2002-02 of January 02, 2002”. Three concepts were used: “making sense” (Weick, 1995); the “strategic paradigm” (Jonhson, 1987); and “cultures of action” (Sorel & Wittorski, 2005; Barbier, 2010; Ardouin, 2015).

With the socioeconomic change that has taken place over the last years, in addition to an increase in sustainability regulation, stakeholders have gained importance and organizations are more active in relation to generating social impact, but society demands more and better social impact from organizations. The objectives of this paper are to clarify the concepts of impact and social impact optimization, and to detect levers and barriers to help organizations optimize the social impact that they generate. A qualitative approach based on interviews with social impact leaders from organizations with different forms (big companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, corporate foundations, b-corps, community foundations, public and private foundations, associations and investing firms) is applied, together with focus groups with stakeholders from those organizations that are best practices.

While the internet skills of the elderly is no longer a big problem, it is still necessary to further improve the online shopping experience and activity of the elderly. Evidently, the frequency of seniors shopping online is not nearly as high as the younger generation, as the elderly online shopping frequency is still calculated by weeks. People with higher education and younger age are more likely to accept technology products and understand how to use them, but people with lower education and older age will find it harder to use technology product. The majority of the elderly have a vision for the further development of technology to help them. This study shows that the elderly group shopping demand is large, but when the majority of the elderly choose offline consumption, the option of just a simple online solution is insufficient. Some shopping apps have made improvements in such aspects as font enlargement, color contrast enhancement and simplified operation steps. However, these improvements only solved the superficial problems, and failed to consider and solve the problems based on the experience of the elderly.

This paper asks whether the turbulence of the Covid-19 lockdowns has left enduring changes to everyday life in the UK which are unlikely to have happened, up to now, in the absence of the pandemic. The analysis disaggregates the UK population by gender, and into age groups and income bands, specifies whose lives were changed during the lockdowns, and exactly how. It is argued that most changes from pre-to post-lockdowns have been spurts in longer-running trends driven by the UK demographic, housing, economic and political contexts. The exceptions, the sole genuine lockdown legacies that the analysis leaves, are the normalisation of working from home and an increase in total time spent doing paid work.

Local knowledge has an important role in agricultural practices. This study aims to describe the local knowledge of farming communities about the use of organic fertilizers as a strategy to increase cashew production in Buton Utara Regency, Southeast Celebes, Indonesia. The research method used is a qualitative approach with data collection techniques using in-depth interviews and observation. The research results showed that the farming community in this area has in-depth local knowledge of how to make and apply effective organic fertilizers sourced from the surrounding natural environment. However, there are challenges in access to the organic materials needed and constraints in the widespread implementation of organic fertilizers. This study recommends strengthening education and training programs to increase farmers' awareness and skills in using organic fertilizers.

This article delves into the intricate landscape of gender roles within China, employing a historical lens to dissect the evolution of these roles throughout key periods of Chinese societal transformation. The study centres on three pivotal epochs in contemporary China: the pre-liberation era (prior to 1949), the era of socialist construction (1949-1978), and the phase of economic reform (post-1978). Despite the undeniably persistent underpinning of traditional gender roles throughout history, this analysis offers insight into the essence of feminist movements-an ongoing struggle against the subjugation of women. While notable strides have been made in enhancing the status and rights of women in recent decades, it becomes evident that achieving genuine gender equality necessitates a more nuanced approach beyond the mere expansion of educational and occupational opportunities for women. True transformation mandates heightened awareness of gender inequality across all societal domains, catalysing collective participation in social initiatives by both genders. This article underscores the imperative of multifaceted engagement to drive meaningful and lasting shifts in gender dynamics.

In Sunset Park, the contemporary American writer Paul Auster reveals the political, economic and social problems that have surfaced in America in the wake of the 9/11 incident. Focusing on the image of people on the edge of the city, the author describes how they rebuild their lives after illegally living in an abandoned apartment in Sunset Park, using the art and the community as a spiritual refuge to seek comfort and heal wounds, reconstruct self-identity, and fight against the unfair society. This article analyzes the characteristics of the community in the novel Sunset Park, to interpret its functions, and to show the healing power of a caring community.

The main colors of the Forbidden City are Red and Yellow, which can represent rich cultural deposits. According to the Chinese traditional culture, the Red of the Forbidden City has always been regarded as a positive color of celebration, conveying dignity and happiness. The Yellow color is usually considered as a promising color, and represents a bumper harvest. Based on the principle of the Five Elements, Fire is red, which means breeding and encouragement, and shows prosperity and a solid foundation for the country. Yellow represents Winged Dragon, belonging to the Center of the Earth, and symbolizes the divine right of emperors. Therefore, the color of the Forbidden City (see Figure 1) is of great significance to the development of history and the revival of culture. We still need to work determinedly for the protection of the cultural heritages, so that more people can have the opportunity to understand the brilliance of Chinese civilization.

This study, through a re-conceptualization of sociological complexity theory's epistemological sources, specifically in Edgar Morin's formulation, sheds light on the theoretical models as well as empirical methodologies of sociological analysis of today's complex, interconnected, diverse and globalized society and global disorder. Complexity theory leads to a shift in perspective and a transformation of the epistemological status of social sciences with an in-depth intervention of disorder, contingency, case, singular, and non-repeatable in the sociological analysis. The notion of dialogic interplay is placed at the paradigm level and stands out at the heart of the concepts, analyzing the social system as auto-eco-organizer. Similarly, the notion of 'emergence' at macro-micro levels imposes itself as complex, logically requiring overcoming simple, linear thinking and model of explanation to adopt the perspective of organizational rotativity in which the product retroacts by transforming the one producing it, by conceiving a circularity of co-production between individuals and society through interactions. Declining epistemology and sociological complexity theory in the empirical methodology setting, the complex sociological approach is phenomenon-, event/information-and crisis-centered, privileging observation, participation-intervention, and 'live inquiry'. The open, in-depth and possibly non-directive interview is part of clinical sociological methodology, raising the question of the observer-phenomenon-observed relation.

The ecology of Artificial Intelligence could be an interdisciplinary field of study that takes as its object the expressive forms of human culture, starting from its systemic dimension. According to this approach, as in the study of 'old and new' media, AI could also be conceived as an environment capable of influencing human perception and knowledge, emotions and values, a space in which individual and social experiences can take place. The following reflection attempts to reflect on a rich and complex topic from a historical and scientific point of view: that of Artificial Intelligence. Specifically, the characteristics and role of AI in contemporary society will be considered, as well as the implications and links of this new technology, capable of imitating human intelligence, on media, education and health. Will what we call (perhaps erroneously) AI become our cognitive/communicative and social collaboration environment?

The movement known as "Breque dos Apps" was a social movement of a striker nature, which took place in Brazil in July 2020. Such movement was organized by workers which provided services to delivery apps (like iFood, Loggi, Uber Eats and Rappi). They demanded better working conditions and social protection measures, since they were out of the protection of the Brazilian legal system. The reason for this lies in the fact that there is a debate about the classification of these workers-the maximum expression of the gig economy-as employees under Brazilian legislation. As a result, and with the exponential growth in the use of these applications due to the Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of workers were left on the fringes of any social protection. This study aims to analyze the aforementioned movement and its demands within the paradigm of social rights, especially the ones regarding collective representation, which are guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution. In terms of methodology, the content analysis method will be applied, considering that the established objective presupposes the study of theoretical and legal texts that allow the structuring of concepts applicable to the theme. The research technique to be adopted will be the analysis of indirect documentation, that is, literature review, to be carried out through bibliographic and documentary research, focused on literature and legal texts related to the topic.

The current research overlaps a linguistic and a legal analysis of public international law in the Ukrainian case. Based on both official documents and public declarations, it explains the grounds for the wide range of understandings that the two common concepts-peace and war-may be bearing depending of the angle of looking at the matter and depending on the actor invoking them. The study develops the reasons likely to have been considered by President Putin when insisting to refer to the Russian military action started in Ukraine in February 2022 as "special military operation" instead of "war" and the cardinal difference in terms of legal impact for such a linguistic choice. It also builds on the elements which could serve as a basis for achieving a deal in obtaining peace in Ukraine, while tackling on the possible geopolitical, public communication and diplomatic hurdles, and offering clues for strategic analysis of the matter.

The article sets out to show that women are critical players in peace building in Kenya, especially in times of political turmoil. Certainly, several African countries have experienced bouts of violence that are always caused by divergent political ideologies amongst its leadership. In most African countries where there is violence, male politicians are always seen as its key promoters; even though it remains an irony that it is women and children who bear the brunt. UNSCR 1325 affirms that peace and security efforts are sustainable when women are equal partners in the prevention of violent conflict and the forging of lasting peace. To control political violence reasonably, it is advisable to encourage the society to put more women political leaderships. In this, the article argues, it will promote good governance and good stewardship of our resources. Curiously, women have not been able to occupy key political positions in Kenya, and face a lot of male-engineered frustrations that are meant to discourage them from electoral politics. To this end, this article will examine the factors that hinder women from securing key positions in the governance of the country such as those of the president, the deputy president, the prime minister, speaker of the national assembly and of the senate, and so on. The article will also discuss how women can overcome the factors that hinder them from taking over political leaderships, and how they can use their skills to usher in peace and prosperity. The methodology will include critical analysis of the state of the nation, and attempt to deconstruct the status quo.

Gamification in education enables for the holistic optimization of the learning process, empowering learners to ameliorate their digital, cognitive, emotional and social skills, via their active experimentation with game design elements, accompanying pertinent pedagogical objectives of interest. This paper focuses on a cross-platform, innovative, gamified, educational learning system product, funded by the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Development and Investments: howlearn. By applying gamification techniques, in 3D virtual environments, within which, learners fulfil STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics)-related Experiments (Simulations, Virtual Labs, Interactive Storytelling Scenarios, Decision Making Case Studies), howlearn covers learners’ subject material, while, simultaneously, functioning, as an Authoring Gamification Tool and as a Game Metrics Repository; users’ metrics are being, dynamically, analyzed, through Machine Learning Algorithms. Consequently, the System learns from the data and learners receive Personalized Feedback Report Dashboards of their overall performance, weaknesses, interests and general class competency. A Custom Recommendation System (Collaborative Filtering, Content-Based Filtering) then supplies suggestions, representing the best matches between Experiments and learners, while also focusing on the reinforcement of the learning weaknesses of the latter. Ultimately, by optimizing the Accuracy, Performance and Predictive capability of the Personalized Feedback Report, we provide learners with scientifically valid performance assessments and educational recommendations, thence intensifying sustainable, learner-centered education.

Abstract: The term "freezing" refers to an innate defensive reaction characterized by the sudden cessation of all movements (Stote & Fanselow, 2004; Eilam, 2005). The freezing effect involving a police officer exposes him to a risk to himself and others. Materials and Methods: 400 anonymous questionnaires administered to law enforcement personnel in Switzerland were evaluated with the aim of testing their knowledge about the freezing phenomenon. In addition, semi-structured interviews involving police personnel were conducted. The authors also analyzed two cases of police officers who had experienced freezing. Results and Conclusions: From the results obtained, it emerges that freezing is not known to most of the police officers interviewed. Therefore, specific and innovative training seems to be necessary. The authors described the brain mechanisms that are involved in freezing. Innovative integrated training modules have been proposed by applying some neuroscientific knowledge, particularly using the potential of mirror neurons. The authors propose a strategy for supporting police officers who have experienced an episode of freezing. The ultimate goal is to provide more scientific tools to protect police officers and civilians.

The fertility rate of China has shown an overall decline trend, so the fully understanding of the factors affecting China's fertility intention has become the focus of the research. Based on CFPS2020 data, the study subjects were women of age between 20 and 49, who were born after the 1970s and were influenced by the family planning policy. Then, SMOTE-Catboost algorithm was used to construct a model. The results show that: (1) For the women's willingness to have multiple children, the SMOTE-Catboost algorithm is more effective than the Catboost algorithm, and the classification accuracy is improved by 8 percentage points. (2) The factors influencing women's willingness to have multiple children were ranked by social status, intergenerational care, education level and age. Women with high social status are more willing to have multiple children; All-day intergenerational care has a positive effect on women's willingness to have multiple children. And women's willingness to have multiple children declines with the rise of education level but increases with age. (3) Combined with the CFPS2018 data, the influencing factors changed over time. In 2018, the important factors related to women's willingness to have multiple children were mainly related to economic, within which the income ranked locally is the most important one. In 2020, the most important factor changed to be social status while economic became less important.

The curriculum "Woven Fabric Structure Design and Application" is the core curriculum of textile majors in higher vocational colleges, which plays a very important role in the cultivation of students' vocational ability and professional quality. The curriculum reform of "Woven Fabric Structure Design and Application" through the deep cooperation of industry-college partnerships, the comprehensive analysis of the major training objectives and graduation requirements, the redesign of the curriculum teaching content, the improvement of the teaching method and the examination method, has achieved good results.

This paper sets out a new paradigm of faith based organisation (FBO) called Curating Spaces of Hope. The paper sets out the paradigm and the interdisciplinary literatures into which the paradigm is applied namely, the diversifying belief landscape in the UK, the postsecular, the redefinition of FBOs, and liminality as the new norm in policy. The paper then turns to ethnographic research to evidence the ability of the paradigm to map and coproduce shared values, before considering applications of Curating Spaces of Hope in post-pandemic contexts in the north west of England through case studies with ecumenical Christian, non-religious, and Turkish Muslim and interfaith contexts.

In the research of political and social fields, modern Islamic politics has evolved into three schools of nationalism, modernism and fundamentalism in the 20th century. The research in the field of contemporary Islam involves different countries, nationalities and different economic and political conditions. It is not only the research field of religion, but also has the characteristics of interdisciplinary academic frontier. From the perspective of academic research, these trends have attracted the attention and research of scholars inside and outside the church on Islamic political and social issues. Recently, there have been many problems related to Islam and the current international political life, as well as the research results of Islamic social thoughts and social movements.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between sport and community by examining the role played by sports participation in community engagement and community capacity building in disadvantaged urban communities. From a conceptual standpoint, the study is based on the sociological theory of the community and Community Capacity Building (CCB) theory, which provide overviews of the concept of community and community capacity and its characteristics. Four disadvantaged urban communities were investigated. Two of these communities had sports programs, while the other two did not. The online questionnaire methodology was adopted to assess the socio-demographic characteristics and community engagement of the participants (knowledge of programs and participation in community activities), and subsequently, an analysis of the online social media narratives of the community members themselves was developed to measure the characteristics of their community capacity building. We found that community engagement and community capacity values were higher in the communities with sports programs. These findings are promising and suggest that approaches based on sports participation development could be fruitful, particularly in disadvantaged communities.

The two-year follow-up as participating observer at the Urban Zone training group and WhatsApp related platform, took place in Roseto degli Abruzzi-a small seaside town in Abruzzi, Italy, during the pandemic crisis for Covid-19. This experience has been a way to keep training despite the pandemic confinement, but it has also become a kind of self-help and therapeutic group. The conditions for its implementation are linked to the impossibility of any indoor sports and also the fact that the online lessons were not very successful. Urban Zone is an outdoor activity that can be carried out in the urban context, whose peculiarity is the opening of the gyms training to the urban or natural outdoor space, through wireless headphones (so people could respect the 2-meter social distancing implied in the prevention measures for Covid-19) in which the music and the trainer instruction can be heard.

The Faculty of Lifelong Learning at South East Technological University’s Carlow campus is one of the largest providers of part-time, adult learning in the Irish HE sector. Therefore, the perspectives of our part-time learners offer us valuable insights into adult learner experiences in the Irish HE sector. The outbreak of Covid 19 saw us pivot our provision to an emergency remote teaching (ERT) model in the first wave of the epidemic. The faculty undertook an extensive study of its learners in 2021 to examine the impacts of ERT on learners, and this article takes a qualitative approach to the findings of this study, looking specifically at learners’ comments about success, and the barriers to success, which ERT posed. Our study provided an opportunity to learn about our learners’ conceptions of student identity, and how they interpret success as part-time learners.

Gamified education has set the ground for the delineation of state-of-the-art literacy skills, enabling learners to develop their digital, cognitive, emotional and social competencies, through active experimentation, motivation and engagement, all while ensuring that pedagogical objectives are being effectuated, therefore capacitating the optimization of the learning process, as a whole. In this paper, we commence by assessing some of the most fundamental frameworks, models and theories evolved around the concept of gamification. We, additionally, showcase schemes through which it stimulates the actualization of active, multidimensional learning, by promoting the application of technological advancements, for the enhancement of learners' hard and soft skills, within time and cost effective frameworks. Ultimately, we, thoroughly, present a newly introduced, cross-platform, innovative educational learning system product, funded by the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Development and Investments, howlearn. Using gamification techniques, in 3D virtual environments, for the realization of STEAM related experiments which cover the vast majority of learners' subject material, while, simultaneously functioning as an authoring tool, whilst essentially accounting for accessibility, geographical and other socioeconomic considerations, howlearn advocates youth-centered learning, providing the foundations towards the establishment of gamified, socially sustainable, multifaceted, inclusive educational learning systems.

Today, we are witnessing a profound transformation of the dominant model of representative democracy which is increasingly giving way to a new form of democracy of the public, as Bernard Manin defined it. In a democracy of the public, parties tend to personalise themselves, becoming machines serving one particular person, who embodies public feelings. Participation and social organization within the territory are progressively replaced by a widespread communication and social media framework where the citizens become just passive spectators. To this, we must add that the spectacularisation of the current democratic systems, adopted to satisfy the audience, leads to negative effects on the protection of fundamental rights. This article will analyse the aspects that characterise the democracies of the public, and their social and legal effects on the consideration of human rights. The article goes further without being limited to this issue. In fact, it wants to emphasise the way human rights are crucial to bolstering democracies, rather than merely the other way around. Doctrines and politics have frequently emphasised the need for democracy, and, more specifically, the export of democracies to advance human rights. Contrarily, a shift in perspective is required in order to preserve liberal democracies.

The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19) has impacted the whole world. To stop the virus's spread, governments enforced regulations requiring face masks and social isolation and also promoted social seclusion, hand-washing, and other hygienic measures. People's movements and consumption were significantly reduced as a result of government-imposed lockdowns, with internet purchasing overtaking in-store purchasing in a particularly noticeable way. Most importantly, people's habits during times of restrictions and lockdowns seemed to reduce overall desire to do cash transactions. Cashless transactions became the most preferred option for daily payment as it helped reduce contact with others and prevent them from becoming infected. These factors contribute to future intentions to eliminate cash payments once the pandemic is ended as well as the choice of payment methods currently in use. Even after the pandemic, people are using digital cashless payments for their daily transactions. This study investigates the impact of the coronavirus on consumer demand for cash and cashless payments during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. This study utilizes the secondary research method by employing the annual statistical report of European Central Bank (ECB) (2021). The data were extracted from the warehouse of ECB, and rigorous analysis was performed to assess the intentions of customers for using digital transactions for payments. In the study, a regression analysis shows that a greater increase in the number of cards used for payment per year occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic than before the pandemic. The study demonstrates that there was a significant correlation between the adoption of cashless payment systems and the restrictions imposed on consumers because of the pandemic. Customers prefer cashless transactions when there is a higher danger of infection while handling cash.

While it is true, quality has always been measured through statistics and percentages, often forgetting the training of the whole person. Now, when we talk about issues such as humanism and education supported by technology, we can fall into extremes: it is common to label technology as the provider of all the evils of today's civilization; or the opposite assumption; to argue that incorporating technologies into education would be the panacea for all the problems it faces and finally, to assume that the subject of the humanities is more typical of actions and attitudes of the past than as a current need, giving vitality to any educational process. However, and fortunately for the educational community, today there are global efforts to make the educational task a human action that minimizes inequities and the abysmal differences that exist in countries like ours. Fernando Reimers says: "Equal educational opportunities must be the priority objective of educational policies, the aim of education must be to contribute to creating just societies". This requires improving the learning environments of the poor, but not only along the paths that have been started over the last decade. This aspect pointed out by Reimers is precisely the central aspect that all educational action must contemplate; the educational policies that are implemented in our country must guarantee, above all, the construction of a just and egalitarian society, strengthening the cultural wealth that we have, with respect to the diversity of people, their past, their present and especially their future.

A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. In order to effectively integrate public cultural resources, many museums at home and abroad have begun to explore general branch museum system. This mode develops rapidly in China and forms many models. However, the general branch museum system of each museum has its own characteristics. Based on this, this paper mainly introduced the example of "general branch museum system" of Datong Museum, China. For the time being, Datong Museum is implementing "general branch museum system". Datong Museum is located in Shanxi Province, China. It is a comprehensive museum and now it is a national first-level museum. There are more than 170,000 cultural relics in Datong Museum. Besides the general one, the other nine branches have opened to the public. It is different from the National Museum Wales, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Cathedral Museum Complex in Toscana District. Led by theme of integration of the main, not only each of the nine branch museums bears its own specific theme and distinct characteristics, but they also link and complement each other. In future, we will further explore the exhibitions of other thematic displays to tell the complete history of Datong, and supplement the untold historical stories, as well as boost recognition of cultural identity and cultural confidence of the public.

China suffered the new wave of indigenous COVID-19 epidemic emanating in 2022. Yangzhou as one of cities of Jiangsu, took one of its worst poundings since the epidemic broke out. The epidemic hit the city, with substantial impact on their cultural undertakings. This article gives an account of how the museums and their local communities in Yangzhou have responded to the calamities, analyzes their interactions, and shares the museum experiences of organizing cultural activities jointly with the craftspeople of local intangible cultural heritage since 2020, when COVID-19 broke out.

This article addresses the issue of 'diversity culture' in social services with the purpose of re-conceptualizing person-centered social services theory and practice. The increased participation of women, minorities, and people of different nationalities and cultures in the business world is outlining a transformation of the workforce. In parallel, there is also a diversification and heterogeneity of customers, social service users' needs, and markets and consumers' styles. The paper analyzes main groups of theories that inform social services techniques-psychological theories, cognitive behavioral theories, systemic theories, humanistic theories, and constructionist theories-with the aim of rethinking models and practices to address the challenges that the social services are facing in responding to needs of cultural, gender, action potential, and age diversity. Specifically, social workers and the social services system are required to adapt to the changing circumstances of the social, economic, cultural and communicative environment.

Effective language strategies play an essential role in traditional teaching. However, the benefits of nonverbal behavior teaching strategy in the classroom have been underestimated. Facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact are all instantaneous nonverbal behaviors that play a significant part in exchanging information in classroom. This study aims to examine how different nonverbal teaching strategies affect teaching and learning and discover what it is used for and how important they are in education. Finally, some suggestions for improving teachers' use of nonverbal behaviors from a teacher professional development perspective are presented.

The corpus of this research was selected from the novel White Deer Plain, focusing on the inter-characteristics of various sign text modalities (fiction, TV lines and TV series), involving the interaction between sign text interpreters such as authors, scriptwriters, directors, actors, censors, post-producers, audiences, etc. Sign manipulations were adopted in these processes. It can be said that these sign processes from linguistic signs to TV drama cross-media and multimedia composite signs are typical sign text. Therefore, the research about complexity of the sign process attracts authors' interest. There are relatively few studies on the analysis of Bai Jiaxuan and Lu Zilin in White Deer Plain from the perspective of semiotics. This paper will analyze the differences in the characterizing process between novels and TV series from the perspective of sign manipulations.