Search

Abstract Energy poverty (EP), a pressing global concern, is uniquely manifested in regions like eastern Turkey due to intertwined socio-economic conditions and intricate energy consumption patterns. This study critically examines the electricity market dynamics, highlighting the direct impact on end-users, from households to entire communities facing challenges such as unauthorized consumption and waste. Our findings over 2 years period of 6 million customer invoices through 17 cities of 5 distribution companies underscore the limitations of traditional income-based measures in capturing the nuances of EP. In response, we introduce a novel metric—the power-cut index per consumer (PCPC)—spotlighting the prevalence of power interruptions due to non-payment as an actionable intervention metric. To address EP’s challenges, we present a mechanism encouraging consumers to reduce consumption, offering debt discounts as incentives. Our methodological approach, harnessing both the Monte Carlo simulation and optimization, promises flexible, actionable strategies tailored to diverse EP situations. Drawing parallels with the European Union’s energy transition efforts, this study proposes the adaptation of European frameworks to cater to Turkey’s unique landscape. By anchoring our insights in real stories of those affected by EP, we highlight the human dimension, emphasizing the urgency of stakeholder collaboration to ensure a future where energy facilitates prosperity rather than hindrance. The collective endeavors of infrastructure companies, governmental agencies, NGOs, and the public are pivotal in sculpting a brighter, equitable energy future.

Marchetti and Sawrikar (International Journal of Eating Disorders, 2023) used the framework of the Common‐Sense Model of the Self‐Regulation to explore the perceptions and experiences of parents caring for individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) from a systematic review of the literature. The studies they reviewed delved into the subjective experiences of parents and considered the influence of emotional and cognitive representations of AN which were predominantly negative. Parents play a key role in all stages of the management of an eating disorder and so our commentary sets the findings into the wider context of eating disorder services. It is important that we continue to forge a collaborative approach with parents that addresses their needs and insights to improve our knowledge about, and services for people with eating disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy poverty (EP), a pressing global concern, is uniquely manifested in regions like eastern Turkey due to intertwined socio-economic conditions and intricate energy consumption patterns. This study critically examines the electricity market dynamics, highlighting the direct impact on end-users, from households to entire communities facing challenges such as unauthorized consumption and waste. Our findings over 2 years period of 6 million customer invoices through 17 cities of 5 distribution companies underscore the limitations of traditional income-based measures in capturing the nuances of EP. In response, we introduce a novel metric—the power-cut index per consumer (PCPC)—spotlighting the prevalence of power interruptions due to non-payment as an actionable intervention metric. To address EP's challenges, we present a mechanism encouraging consumers to reduce consumption, offering debt discounts as incentives. Our methodological approach, harnessing both the Monte Carlo simulation and optimization, promises flexible, actionable strategies tailored to diverse EP situations. Drawing parallels with the European Union's energy transition efforts, this study proposes the adaptation of European frameworks to cater to Turkey's unique landscape. By anchoring our insights in real stories of those affected by EP, we highlight the human dimension, emphasizing the urgency of stakeholder collaboration to ensure a future where energy facilitates prosperity rather than hindrance. The collective endeavors of infrastructure companies, governmental agencies, NGOs, and the public are pivotal in sculpting a brighter, equitable energy future. Highlights: Electricity prices surge due to Covid-19 and natural disasters, impacting consumers' bills and leading to energy poverty (EP). Conventional data analysis methods overlook unique circumstances contributing to EP, necessitating a comprehensive, context-specific approach. Power-cut job orders provide more accurate indicators of EP than income-based formulas, highlighting the need for tailored solutions. EP affects both developed and developing regions, leading to unauthorized consumption and emphasizing the importance of energy efficiency. The power-cut index per consumer (PCPC) offers insights into EP prevalence and its correlation with lower socio-economic development. Effective support mechanisms require clear funding, objectives, and stakeholder engagement for long-term sustainability. Collaboration between energy companies, government, and NGOs is essential to design impactful support programs addressing EP. Debt collection optimization involves tailored solutions for varying debt levels, maximizing collection rates while avoiding financial risks. Monte Carlo simulations validate effective discount scenarios that reduce debt and support vulnerable households. Social responsibility projects, combining infrastructure development and job creation, have shown promise in mitigating payment disruptions and improving welfare. Data privacy is crucial, and rigorous processing protects sensitive information from being revealed. The Electricity Market Consumer Services Regulation (EMRA) in Turkey prioritizes consumer rights and equitable practices to create a consumer-friendly electricity market. Consumers committing to reduce consumption after power-cut job orders can receive discounted debt payments, fostering responsible energy use. Optimal discount and participation rates can be determined through iterative algorithms, ensuring the program's financial viability. Addressing EP requires a nuanced approach, incentivizing energy conservation, and fostering a sustainable energy landscape for vulnerable communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many, the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of health does not reflect their own understanding of health, because it lacks aspects such as spiritual wellbeing. Responding to these concerns, the WHO called in 2023 for a vision of health that integrates physical, mental, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and social wellbeing. To date, medical practitioners are often reluctant to consider spiritual aspects, because of a perceived lack of statistical evidence about the strength of relations. Research on this topic is emerging. A recent study among 800 young people living with HIV in Zimbabwe showed how study participants navigated three parallel, at times contradicting health systems (religious, traditional, medical). Conflicting approaches led to multifaceted dilemmas (= spiritual struggles), which were significantly related to poorer mental and physical health. This illustrates the need for inclusion of spiritual aspects for health and wellbeing in research, and of increased collaboration between all stakeholders in healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary provides a detailed overview of the extensive stakeholder engagement efforts critical to the development of the Future of Cancer Impact (FOCI) in Alberta report. The overarching aim of the FOCI report was to support informed and strategic discussions and actions that will help key stakeholders in the province prepare for a future with increasing cancer incidence and survival. Employing a comprehensive approach and a diverse range of engagement activities, insights from a wide spectrum of stakeholders were gathered and subsequently used to shape the content of the report. This inclusive process ensured broad representation of perspectives, contributing to a deeper understanding of the complexities in cancer care. The outcome is a robust, consensus-driven report with recommendations set to drive significant transformations within the healthcare system. These efforts highlight the critical role of extensive, inclusive, and collaborative engagement in shaping healthcare initiatives and advancing discussions crucial for the future of cancer care in Alberta.

This qualitative study aimed to describe the collaborative process followed by an in-service teacher and two university researchers in co-designing and implementing a Health-based Physical Education/Sport Education hybridization and to explore the perceived strengths/weaknesses of the process. An 11-lesson (six weeks) intervention on rope-skipping was conducted in a 5th-grade classroom. Qualitative data was collected (teacher’s interviews, participant observation and video recording) and analysed using a multiphase approach combining inductive and deductive (based on models features and intervention’s pedagogical principles) thematic content analysis and constant comparison. Self-reflective cycles were applied to reinforce the teaching-learning process by sharing professional knowledge and reflections. Results revealed that the collaboration with researchers helped the teacher to check whether it was consistent with the models’ goals and critical elements and readjust her practice. The teacher was crucial to the co-design and adaptation of the hybridized models to the local context due to her knowledge of the school and pupils. From the collaborative team’s perspective, her role during the implementation fostered group co-responsibility, respect for students’ different motor competencies, and transference of practice beyond the school timetable. This contributed to encouraging students’ physical activity involvement in an informed and autonomous way. However, a longer initial ‘Guidance stage’ was deemed essential to help students learn basic concepts and skills to better progress in an informed and self-managed way. Longer interventions and research are necessary to delve deeper into the understanding of pedagogical models. A collaborative approach may help teachers to face initial involvement in the pedagogical models’ implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary provides a detailed overview of the extensive stakeholder engagement efforts critical to the development of the Future of Cancer Impact (FOCI) in Alberta report. The overarching aim of the FOCI report was to support informed and strategic discussions and actions that will help key stakeholders in the province prepare for a future with increasing cancer incidence and survival. Employing a comprehensive approach and a diverse range of engagement activities, insights from a wide spectrum of stakeholders were gathered and subsequently used to shape the content of the report. This inclusive process ensured broad representation of perspectives, contributing to a deeper understanding of the complexities in cancer care. The outcome is a robust, consensus-driven report with recommendations set to drive significant transformations within the healthcare system. These efforts highlight the critical role of extensive, inclusive, and collaborative engagement in shaping healthcare initiatives and advancing discussions crucial for the future of cancer care in Alberta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the extent to which approaches to supervision developed outside of China fit with Chinese cultural approaches to learning and teaching. Qualitative data were collected from students and supervisors from three different regions in China. The findings suggest that a student-focused, egalitarian approach is fundamental to promote students' learning at the current developmental stage of the social work profession in China. This approach is in conflict to some degree with the deeply rooted traditional teacher-centred, authoritative teaching and learning style. This study illustrates how a student-focused, equalitarian approach could be applied to alleviate such a tension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During dialogue, speakers attempt to adapt messages to their addressee appropriately by taking into consideration their common ground (i.e., all the information mutually known by the conversational partners) to ensure successful communication. Knowing and remembering what information is part of the common ground shared with a given partner and using it during dialogue are crucial skills for social interaction. It is therefore important to better understand how we can measure the use of common ground and to identify the potential associated psychological processes. In this context, a systematic review of the literature was performed to list the linguistic measures of common ground found in dialogue studies involving a matching task and to explore any evidence of cognitive and social mechanisms underlying common ground use in this specific experimental setting, particularly in normal aging and in neuropsychological studies. Out of the 23 articles included in this review, we found seven different linguistic measures of common ground that were classified as either a direct measure of common ground (i.e., measures directly performed on the referential content) or an indirect measure of common ground (i.e., measures assessing the general form of the discourse). This review supports the idea that both types of measures should systematically be used while assessing common ground because they may reflect different concepts underpinned by distinct psychological processes. Given the lack of evidence for the implication of other cognitive and social functions in common ground use in studies involving matching tasks, future research is warranted, particularly in the clinical field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a young operatic performer-scholar, I have observed issues in the industry that I believe stem from opera’s complex, authoritative power structure and many of its leaders’ refusals to change this structure. In working towards rectifying these issues, I ask: How can the operatic rehearsal process, specifically, embrace measures of liberatory praxis and power disruption? Drawing on secondary literature regarding historical practices, philosophies of power, and liberatory praxis in music education, and a roundtable discussion I facilitated among opera practitioners on leadership and power structures, I developed a workshop in which I aimed to enable singers’ agency using alternative rehearsal methods. This workshop used a collaborative, democratic structure which honoured each participant’s expertise and prioritized discussions of the goals of the workshop and of each individual participant. Although some singers seemed uneasy with a collaborative structure of rehearsal as opposed to one with a central authoritative figure, my personal observations and a survey completed by workshop participants showed that singers gained agency through the employment of democratic, liberatory rehearsal praxis. Based on these results, I recommend that opera companies adopt a structure of democracy and collaborative discussion of personal and social praxis to expand singers’ agency. These results also suggest that continued study in singers’ praxis, agency, and power in operatic processes is needed.

Navigation and task allocation for swarm robot systems are more difficult than for a single robot. In swarm robot systems, navigation and task allocation difficulties are compounded by challenges such as a dynamic environment, exponentially increasing complexity, and collaboration. In this study, a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) based collaborative approach for navigation and task allocation is proposed, which can be trained at the same time as the training time of a single robot and achieve a high success rate. The proposed approach implements DRL as a distributed architecture. Furthermore, the proposed approach uses adaptive reward mechanisms, a leaderless control approach for environment control, and a simultaneous learning approach for learning. The proposed approach is evaluated by the success rate of reaching the target, the success rate of reaching the target by the shortest path, the success rate of selecting a task, and the success rate of selecting the nearest task. In addition, the costs of the non-collaborative approach are compared with the costs of the collaborative approach. The evaluations show that the success rate of navigation and collaboration of the robots increased and the cost decreased. Thus, the performance of the proposed approach is verified.

For many, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of health does not reflect their own understanding of health, because it lacks aspects such as spiritual wellbeing. Responding to these concerns, the WHO called in 2023 for a vision of health that integrates physical, mental, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and social wellbeing. To date, medical practitioners are often reluctant to consider spiritual aspects, because of a perceived lack of statistical evidence about the strength of relations. Research on this topic is emerging. A recent study among 800 young people living with HIV in Zimbabwe showed how study participants navigated three parallel, at times contradicting health systems (religious, traditional, medical). Conflicting approaches led to multifaceted dilemmas (= spiritual struggles), which were significantly related to poorer mental and physical health. This illustrates the need for inclusion of spiritual aspects for health and wellbeing in research, and of increased collaboration between all stakeholders in healthcare.

This research aims to develop an inclusive education model " InklusiPlus" in Kendari City for children with special needs. The research's goal is to enhance access and support to create an inclusive educational environment. Through a collaborative approach, the study focuses on establishing a Collaborative Forum, professional training, developing inclusive facilities, and raising community awareness campaigns. The research involves 36 participants, including children with special needs, educators, and parents at Special Schools in Kendari City. Data collection is conducted through observations and interviews. Qualitative analysis is employed for data analysis. The results indicate that "InklusiPlus" successfully enhances collaboration among stakeholders, provides relevant training, and creates inclusive facilities. The research's conclusion highlights the success of the "InklusiPlus" model in creating an inclusive environment that supports the development of children with special needs in Kendari City.

Shosaku Nomura Center of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Kansai Medical University Medical Center, Moriguchi, Osaka, JapanCorrespondence: Shosaku Nomura, Center of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Kansai Medical University Medical Center, 10-15 Fumizono-cho, Moriguchi, Osaka, 570-8507, Japan, Tel + 81 6 6992 1001, Fax + 81 6 6992 1066, Email shosaku-n@mbp.ocn.ne.jpAbstract: The importance of comprehensive care as a treatment strategy for patients with hemophilia is recognized worldwide. Comprehensive care entails addressing full spectrum of medical and psychological aspects impacting both patients and their families. The primary objective of comprehensive care for individuals with hemophilia is to enable them to lead their daily lives just as anyone else would. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to have a positive and collaborative approach across various healthcare disciplines. This extends beyond clinical specialists, encompassing pediatricians, hematologists, orthopedic surgeons, dental and oral surgeons, gynecologists, nurses, physical therapists, clinical psychologists, and other professionals from diverse fields. This review article discusses the current status and challenges associated with comprehensive care for patients with hemophilia. We categorize these challenges as follows: hemophilic arthritis, rehabilitation, oral care, transitioning from pediatric to adult care, addressing carrier issues, and providing psychological care. There is still substantial work to be undertaken in addressing these hurdles and advancing the quality of comprehensive care for hemophilia patients.Keywords: hemophilia, comprehensive care, collaborative approach, psychological care, carrier issues

The issue of urban liveability has been extensively debated by global agencies and scholars, as evidenced by the New Urban Agenda, in response to the impact of urbanisation. Urban liveability pertains to the ability of urban communities to achieve a high-quality living environment. While participatory planning is often presented as a means of empowering communities to attain better living conditions, it has presented challenges for decision-makers. Furthermore, dominant actors often influence participation processes, benefiting certain community segments. As a result, collaborative planning has emerged as an approach that seeks to address the interests of multiple urban factors by promoting consensus in decision-making. This paper aims to examine the collaborative planning methods that have been used in strategic planning that have empowered the community to participate in the planning process. Content analysis was employed as a research method to explore the empirical evidence of collaborative planning that has successfully empowered community participation in strategic planning and its impact on the liveability of metropolitan areas. Correspondingly, the Melbourne, Vancouver, and Helsinki case studies were selected based on five liveable city indices. This study's findings suggest a positive correlation between the implementation of collaborative planning by the selected metropolitan areas and their status as the most liveable cities. This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the role of collaborative planning in promoting urban liveability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scarcity and diversity of medical data have made it challenging to build an accurate global classification model in the healthcare sector. The prime reason is privacy concerns and legal obstacles which limit data-sharing scope among institutions in healthcare. On the other hand, data from a single source is hardly sufficient to develop a universal diagnosis model. While federated learning is a potential solution to privacy and data diversity concerns (allows distributed model training), an apt aggregation process for multi-class and heterogeneous medical data is still at the outset. This study aims to propose a federated learning mechanism that can effectively learn from multi-class and heterogeneous respiratory medical data. The proposed system trains and aggregates the local model by leveraging blockchain technology, ensuring privacy. While aggregating the local models, we introduced the weight manipulation technique that, unlike any other studies, uses the local model test accuracy as the principal parameter. The resulting metric scores show that learning from diverse and heterogeneous​ data, the performance of the proposed federated model is analogous to a single-source model (learning from single source data). Using the novel aggregation technique, the highest testing accuracy of 88.10% has been achieved for five classes, compared to the less complex single source model, which achieved 88.60% testing accuracy. A similar trend has been observed for models with three and four classes. For developing better synergy among organizations, this study introduces an incentive mechanism for the contributing institution while the blockchain stores the records to make the system transparent and trustworthy. The proposed mechanism has been implemented using a web system, which demonstrates how the weight manipulation technique can effectively learn from heterogeneous and multi-sourced data while preserving privacy.

Background: Although use of inpatient crisis hospital intervention for suicide risk is common, the evidence for inpatient treatments that reduce suicidal thoughts and behaviors is remarkably limited. To address this need, this novel feasibility pilot randomized controlled trial compared the use of the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) to enhanced treatment as usual (E-TAU) within a standard acute inpatient mental health care setting. Objectives: We hypothesized that CAMS would be more eective than E-TAU in reducing suicidal thoughts and behaviors. As secondary outcomes we also investigated depressive symptoms, general symptom burden, reasons for living, and quality of the therapeutic relationship. Methods: All patients were admitted due to acute suicidal thoughts or behaviors. They were randomly assigned to CAMS (n = 43) or E-TAU (n = 45) and assessed at four time points (admission, discharge, 1 month and 5 months after discharge). We used mixed-eects models, eect sizes, and reliable change analyses to compare improvements across and between treatment groups over time. Results: Intent-to-treat analyses of 88 participants [mean age 32.1, SD = 13.5; n = 47 (53%) females] showed that both groups improved over time across all outcome measures with no significant between-group dierences in terms of change in suicidal ideation, depression, reasons for living, and distress. However, CAMS showed larger eect sizes across all measures; for treatment completers CAMS patients showed significant improvement in suicidal ideation (p = 0.01) in comparison to control patients. CAMS patients rated the therapeutic relationship significantly better (p = 0.02) than E-TAU patients and were less likely to attempt suicide within 4 weeks after discharge (p = 0.05). Conclusions: CAMS and E-TAU were both eective in reducing suicidal thoughts and symptom distress. Within this feasibility RCT the pattern of results was generally supportive of CAMS suggesting that inpatient use of CAMS is both feasible and promising. However, our preliminary results need further replication within well-powered multi-site randomized controlled tTrial registration: DRKS-ID/ICTRP-ID: DRKS00013727. The trial was retrospectively registered in the German Clinical Trials Register, registration code/ DRKS-ID: DRKS00013727 on 12.01.2018 and also in the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform of the World Health Organization (identical registration code). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practice learning is a significant opportunity for future social workers. In consideration of the central role it plays, the Catholic University of Milan offers the chance to carry out both traditional and unconventional practice placement. Unconventional Practice Placements (UPP) is closer to Service Learning, but it is also based on the theoretical framework known as the Relational Social Work method. The aim of UPPs is creating or implementing social intervention starting from collaboration with a network of people (professionals of public or private organizations, service users, caregivers and citizens). The process begins with the identification of a real need of the local community. The purpose of this paper is to analyse UPPs presenting the results of quantitative research. An online survey collects the students' learning experience, who attended the academic years from 2015 to 2019. The research shows that UPPs important learning is achieved in the field, especially in relation to group and community work. Not only that, but the local communities benefit from the social interventions planned in a participatory manner emerging from the UPPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Artificial Intelligence Recommender System has emerged as a significant research interest. It aims at helping users find things online by offering recommendations that closely fit their interests. Recommenders for research papers have appeared over the last decade to make it easier to find publications associated with the field of researchers' interests. However, due to several issues, such as copyright constraints, these methodologies assume that the recommended articles' contents are entirely openly accessible, which is not necessarily the case. This work demonstrates an efficient model, known as RPRSCA: Research Paper Recommendation System Using Effective Collaborative Approach, to address these uncertain systems for the recommendation of quality research papers. We make use of contextual metadata that are publicly available to gather hidden relationships between research papers in order to personalize recommendations by exploiting the advantages of collaborative filtering. The proposed system, RPRSCA, is unique and gives personalized recommendations irrespective of the research subject. Thus, a novel collaborative approach is proposed that provides better performance. Using a publicly available dataset, we found that our proposed method outperformed previous uncertain methods in terms of overall performance and the capacity to return relevant, valuable, and quality publications at the top of the recommendation list. Furthermore, our proposed strategy includes personalized suggestions and customer expertise, in addition to addressing multi-disciplinary concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundAlthough use of inpatient crisis hospital intervention for suicide risk is common, the evidence for inpatient treatments that reduce suicidal thoughts and behaviors is remarkably limited. To address this need, this novel feasibility pilot randomized controlled trial compared the use of the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) to enhanced treatment as usual (E-TAU) within a standard acute inpatient mental health care setting.ObjectivesWe hypothesized that CAMS would be more effective than E-TAU in reducing suicidal thoughts and behaviors. As secondary outcomes we also investigated depressive symptoms, general symptom burden, reasons for living, and quality of the therapeutic relationship.MethodsAll patients were admitted due to acute suicidal thoughts or behaviors. They were randomly assigned to CAMS (n = 43) or E-TAU (n = 45) and assessed at four time points (admission, discharge, 1 month and 5 months after discharge). We used mixed-effects models, effect sizes, and reliable change analyses to compare improvements across and between treatment groups over time.ResultsIntent-to-treat analyses of 88 participants [mean age 32.1, SD = 13.5; n = 47 (53%) females] showed that both groups improved over time across all outcome measures with no significant between-group differences in terms of change in suicidal ideation, depression, reasons for living, and distress. However, CAMS showed larger effect sizes across all measures; for treatment completers CAMS patients showed significant improvement in suicidal ideation (p = 0.01) in comparison to control patients. CAMS patients rated the therapeutic relationship significantly better (p = 0.02) than E-TAU patients and were less likely to attempt suicide within 4 weeks after discharge (p = 0.05).ConclusionsCAMS and E-TAU were both effective in reducing suicidal thoughts and symptom distress. Within this feasibility RCT the pattern of results was generally supportive of CAMS suggesting that inpatient use of CAMS is both feasible and promising. However, our preliminary results need further replication within well-powered multi-site randomized controlled trials.Trial registrationDRKS-ID/ICTRP-ID: DRKS00013727. The trial was retrospectively registered in the German Clinical Trials Register, registration code/ DRKS-ID: DRKS00013727 on 12.01.2018 and also in the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform of the World Health Organization (identical registration code).

Copyright of De Familias y Terapias is the property of Instituto Chileno de Terapia Familiar and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Competition is an important component of all economies at some level whether it involves companies, job-seekers, or markets. Furthermore, some of the most successful companies are known for their hypercompetitive cultures that put the company's results first. However, nowadays more and more organizations are starting to embrace a distinctly collaborative approach to achieve success or goals and build successful teams. This scientific article was written to answer the following question: which approach, cooperative or competitive, has the best results in increasing the team performance? Our results lead to the fact that the collaborative approach has a higher impact on increasing the performance of companies by implementing programs that encourage teamwork and helping other colleagues grow. According to our research, the contests encourage competitiveness between employees. On the other hand, the programs increase teamwork and rewards employees based on how they have helped the team. In future work, this study could analyze the best working approach that might suit employees and companies over the years in different fields and countries, by reaching out to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Companies meet hindrances and difficulties in adopting life cycle assessment (LCA) as a way to identify and assess the environmental aspects of their products and services. Collaborative approaches that are able to involve companies, researchers, trade associations, and other stakeholders can support the organizations in overcoming the LCA barriers by developing common resources. So, the research goal is to demonstrate how the developed collaborative approach enhances the adoption of LCA and product environmental footprint (PEF) in small and medium organizations. The paper presents the results achieved by 15 organizations, operating within five different supply chains, where the collaborative approach was tested. Method: The research method we followed in our research is the "action research," focused on the so called "engaged scholarship." Action research is based on a strong cooperation between researchers and practitioners belonging to the organizations involved. It relies on extensive interaction in order to solve a specific problem and generate new knowledge. Results and discussion: A cooperative approach was designed and proposed to five supply chains (foundry, furniture, two food chains, and catering services) and in particular to 15 Italian companies that adopted LCA and PEF to improve their environmental performance. Each supply chain tested and internalized the proposed collaborative approach: In partnership with trade associations and researchers, companies participated in training initiatives, contributed to the development of PEF Category Rules, measured the environmental footprint of their products, and adopted improvement actions. Thanks to the action-research experience, all the involved companies achieved environmental improvements such as energy saving and emissions reduction, which demonstrates how the collaborative approach to LCA is effective in terms of footprint reduction. Conclusion: The research shows how the proposed collaborative approach can be effective for overcoming the lack of resources and knowledge in LCA adoption. The five supply chains, and 15 organizations involved, had the chance of experimenting "in field" how the LCA can improve both their competitiveness and their environmental performance. The research findings also contribute to the stakeholder engagement theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding health is a biological, psychological - social problem and requires complex policy actions and present of a variety of stakeholders in health policy process. In Contrary to the traditional approach to understanding health which was reductionist and medical, new approach is multi-dimensional and the attitude toward health is seen a phenomenon that depends on political, social, economic, cultural, individual and biological variables. New epidemic diseases including Covid-19 are not limited to medicine and must be seen as multi-level issue in a complicated format policy action. The main question of the present article is: what are the strategy principal policy making of confronting with corona? According to descriptive-analytic method and based on malign problem, research findings indicate policy design of confronting with corona must be applied at collaborative approach framework and at health governance frame. Governments must change the way they look at complex and malignant problems. It must change from command and control to leadership. The strategic implications of Corona policy-making are based on a collaborative approach, attention to the socio-historical context, changing the behavior of stakeholders and actors, determining authority, using health diplomacy, inclusive support system, increasing socio-political capital and using technology.

The shift of the forest management paradigm in Indonesia in this recent time has given more space for people that align with the Indonesian Government to elevate well-being at once to conserve forest through Social Forestry Program. One model group from 6.411 forest communities that manage forest is Forest Village Communuty or Lembaga Masyaraakat Desa Hutan (LMDH) of Rawa Sakti. This paper aims to describe the structure-process of social forestry program implementation in LMDH Rawa Sakti which uses access theory that is complemented by the collaborative approach. The qualitative approach with descriptive analysis in the case study is conducted through depth interviews (consist of the management and members of LMDH Rawa Sakti, middleman, village officer, and coffee entrepreneur), observation, and focus group discussion. The result shows that negotiation and social relation access is the essential access that can influence five other forms of SRAM by Theory of Access that need to be examined by the collaborative approach elements, especially at accountability, communication, involvement, and equity to identify elite capture. In the end, the elite capture causes a lack of contribution and cooperation as a group to achieve social forestry program goal.

The relevance of the study stems from the impact of digital collaboration on the educational process of higher education institutions, combining the use of robotics, artificial intelligence, 3D printing and other smart systems in the learning activities of students. Currently, the methodology, content and technologies of the digital collaboration of the university educational process have acquired the status of global trends in training students - future specialists for the spheres of the transforming world. In this context, the development of collaborative approaches to designing students' digital competences in line with the foreseeable trends in educational innovation is justified in this article as an independent research area. The article reveals the pedagogical discourse of students' digital competences, taking into account collaborative trends in the educational process of higher education institutions. Priorities for collaborative trends in the HEI's educational process are established. In the course of the study, the authors of the article substantiated a collaborative model of the student's digital competences. The effectiveness of the model has been proven by the results of its implementation in the educational process of the HEI. This article is recommended for teachers, university students, methodologists, curators and tutors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Artificial Intelligence Recommender System has emerged as a significant research interest. It aims at helping users find things online by offering recommendations that closely fit their interests. Recommenders for research papers have appeared over the last decade to make it easier to find publications associated with the field of researchers’ interests. However, due to several issues, such as copyright constraints, these methodologies assume that the recommended articles’ contents are entirely openly accessible, which is not necessarily the case. This work demonstrates an efficient model, known as RPRSCA: Research Paper Recommendation System Using Effective Collaborative Approach, to address these uncertain systems for the recommendation of quality research papers. We make use of contextual metadata that are publicly available to gather hidden relationships between research papers in order to personalize recommendations by exploiting the advantages of collaborative filtering. The proposed system, RPRSCA, is unique and gives personalized recommendations irrespective of the research subject. Thus, a novel collaborative approach is proposed that provides better performance. Using a publicly available dataset, we found that our proposed method outperformed previous uncertain methods in terms of overall performance and the capacity to return relevant, valuable, and quality publications at the top of the recommendation list. Furthermore, our proposed strategy includes personalized suggestions and customer expertise, in addition to addressing multi-disciplinary concerns.

Since 2020, university courses and services have been affected by the COVID-19 global health emergency. Necessary safety measures have compelled educational systems to quickly convert to distance learning and, consequently, to modify their instructional design processes so that they can meet students' needs. Changes have been seen in all teaching contexts, but in vocational higher education courses characterised by hands-on workshops that provide an experiential form of learning, professors are particularly pressed to find suitable formats for their virtual courses that allow students to participate and feel motivated to learn. Through the use of two qualitative case studies - a first-year and a third-year Education Sciences degree course, a three-year programme, at the University of Macerata, Italy - the present study focuses on motivational drivers. This article specifically describes and analyses the second case study, taking into account the lessons learnt and the inputs from the first case study. The data collection tools (questionnaire, observation grids) were designed starting from interpretative categories identified through analysing the first case study, in order to test the following research hypotheses and explore their connotations: (1) active student participation in group work can be a motivational challenge; and (2) both professor and peer feedback can be a key promoting aspect. The results of the study highlight the potential role of collaborative task-oriented practical learning activities in bridging students' participation and feedback processes and fostering their motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, teamwork, and specifically the role of the interdisciplinary team, have become increasingly important in the treatment of various conditions. The interdisciplinary team increases the quality of the performance of those involved, maximizing the skills for optimal functioning within the team, and thus optimizing the state of health of the patient. Although the scientific community has not established a final definition for the interdisciplinary team, a number of studies refer to it as the collaborative approach of a set of health scientists, with participants from a variety of health services. In Greece there is currently no institutionalized legal framework for the operation of interdisciplinary team. For this collaborative approach to be effective, the team members need training in the appropriate collaborative qualities, namely collaboration, desire to participate and commitment. The right composition and structure are important properties of the interdisciplinary team and successful communication, both between team members and with the patient is crucial. Successful interdisciplinary teamwork brings positive results for both the professionals who make up the team and the patients who receive this intervention. Self-determination, selfconfidence, and mutual understanding are the main benefits for the team’s health scientists, and the patients profit from a more comprehensive and holistic approach to their needs. Interdisciplinary teams face various challenges, including leadership issues, the unclear role of each professional and a lack of appropriate and targeted training on the collaborative approach. These issues, when unresolved, can lead to conflict among team members, and subsequently to inadequate patient care. The increase in people belonging to vulnerable groups has highlighted the need for a holistic and collaborative approach to providing treatment for these patients that will improve their quality of life. Cultivation of the necessary team characteristics, with emphasis on the role of both the interdisciplinary team and each participating health professional, will ensure the provision of an effective collaborative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2020, university courses and services have been affected by the COVID-19 global health emergency. Necessary safety measures have compelled educational systems to quickly convert to distance learning and, consequently, to modify their instructional design processes so that they can meet students’ needs. Changes have been seen in all teaching contexts, but in vocational higher education courses characterised by hands-on workshops that provide an experiential form of learning, professors are particularly pressed to find suitable formats for their virtual courses that allow students to participate and feel motivated to learn. Through the use of two qualitative case studies – a first-year and a third-year Education Sciences degree course, a three-year programme, at the University of Macerata, Italy – the present study focuses on motivational drivers. This article specifically describes and analyses the second case study, taking into account the lessons learnt and the inputs from the first case study. The data collection tools (questionnaire, observation grids) were designed starting from interpretative categories identified through analysing the first case study, in order to test the following research hypotheses and explore their connotations: (1) active student participation in group work can be a motivational challenge; and (2) both professor and peer feedback can be a key promoting aspect. The results of the study highlight the potential role of collaborative task-oriented practical learning activities in bridging students’ participation and feedback processes and fostering their motivation.

The Circumpolar region, comprising the Arctic territories encircling the North Pole, is home to diverse Indigenous cultures facing unique socio-economic challenges. Indigenous communities such as the Inuit, Sámi, Athabaskan, Gwitchin, and Russian Arctic groups exhibit rich traditions and adaptive practices tied to their environments. Environmental diversity, from icy tundra to boreal forests, influences livelihoods and biodiversity, while significant socio-economic disparities persist, impacting access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunities. Against this backdrop, the global COVID-19 pandemic accentuated the intersection of environment, culture, and health in remote Arctic regions, presenting distinct challenges and opportunities. Initiated by a collaborative research project led by Fulbright Arctic Initiative Alumni, this special issue of the International Journal of Circumpolar Health explores the impacts of COVID-19 on Arctic Indigenous and rural communities. Building on previous work and recommendations, the issue features community case studies, highlighting community experiences and collaborative approaches to understand and address the pandemic's effects. The authors highlight both positive and negative societal outcomes, presenting community-driven models and evidence-based practices to inform pan-Arctic collaboration and decision-making in public health emergencies. Through sharing these insights, the special issue aims to privilege local and Indigenous knowledge systems, elevates community responses to complex and multifaceted challenges, and contributes to the evidence base on global pandemic response.

Abstract While efforts to reverse the current global environmental crisis increase, we are still experiencing unprecedented rates of species' extinctions. Traditional cultural landscapes can potentially play an important role for biodiversity conservation globally. However, these landscapes are threatened by pressures from global to local socio‐economic drivers of change. Many cultural landscapes across the world occur on private land where landowners' environmental stewardship can help support nature conservation. In this study, we applied a place‐based collaborative approach to understand the main aspects underlying landowners' relationship with nature, their perceptions of the local social–ecological context and their vision of a desired future to identify the constraints and opportunities to support voluntary private land conservation. The study was conducted in Uruguay, in a traditional cattle ranching cultural landscape, which is a national priority area for the conservation of biodiversity. In Uruguay, approximately 96% of the land is privately owned, while the National System of Protected Areas covers only ~1% of the land. Our results revealed that landowners had a close relationship with nature and considered themselves and their neighbours as local environmental stewards. Landowners were well aware of the importance of nature contributions to their livelihood and lifestyle and were concerned that rural exodus to urban areas and shrubland encroachment would negatively impact the social–ecological context they value and depend upon. Main needs of landowners to support biodiversity conservation were not primarily motivated by economic interests, but more related to the need for support that could enhance land management and social cohesion. Biodiversity conservation goals in this cultural landscape cannot be pursued in isolation from social and rural development goals. Addressing local needs based on already existing links between nature's contributions and people might help support biodiversity conservation in the area. Failing to understand the context and to recognize locally perceived problems could increase the risk of voluntary conservation failure. Our approach and lessons learned can provide insights to actionable research in other cultural landscapes globally. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Abstract Background Policy dialogue for health policies has started to gain importance in recent years, especially for complex issues such as health financing. Moroccan health financing has faced several challenges during the last years. This study aims to document the Moroccan experience in developing a consolidated health financing strategy according to the policy dialogue approach. It especially considers the importance of conceptualising this process in the Moroccan context. Method We documented the process of developing a health financing strategy in Morocco. It concerned four steps, as follows: (1) summarising health financing evidence in preparation of the policy dialogue; (2) organising the health policy dialogue process with 250 participants (government, private sector, NGOs, civil society, parliamentarians, technical and financial partners); (3) a technical workshop to formulate the strategy actions; and (4) an ultimate workshop for validation with decision-makers. The process lasted 1 year from March 2019 to February 2020. We have reviewed all documents related to the four steps of the process through our active participation in the policy debate and the documentation of two technical workshops to produce the strategy document. Results The policy dialogue approach showed its usefulness in creating convergence among all health actors to define a national shared vision on health financing in Morocco. There was a high political commitment in the process and all actors officially adopted recommendations on health financing actions. A strategy document produced within a collaborative approach was the final output. This experience also marked a shift from previous top-down approaches in designing health policies for more participation and inclusion. The evidence synthesis played a crucial role in facilitating the debate. The collaborative approach seems to work in favouring national consensus on practical health financing actions. Conclusion The policy dialogue process adopted for health financing in Morocco helped to create collective ownership of health financing actions. Despite the positive results in terms of national mobilisation around the health financing vision in Morocco, there is a need to institutionalise the policy dialogue with a more decentralised approach to consider subnational specificities.