The North American model of wildlife conservation is an inappropriate basis for formulating conservation policy

This study analyzes the spatial dominance and regional differentiation of forest, agricultural, and water surface areas across Türkiye's NUTS-2 regions for the period 2000-2024. Land use data were compiled from nationally authoritative sources and standardized in hectares to ensure interregional comparability. Spatial concentration patterns were evaluated using the location quotient (LQ) method, while principal component analysis (PCA), and cluster analysis were employed to identify structural dimensions and regional typologies. Results indicate a pronounced decline in agricultural dominance, contrasted with a relatively stable yet regionally differentiated structure of forest areas. Water surfaces exhibit localized but significant shifts, particularly in eastern and southeastern regions. PCA findings show that 84.6% of total variance is explained by two components representing the agriculture-forest balance and water surface distribution. Cluster analysis reveals two main regional groupings, with TRB2 displaying a distinct dominance pattern driven by water surfaces. The TR61 region emerges as a balanced land use structure where both agricultural and forest dominance remain comparatively strong. These findings demonstrate that land use dynamics in Türkiye are shaped by region-specific ecological and structural factors rather than uniform national trends. The study provides a quantitative, multidimensional framework for interpreting regional land use transformations and offers policy-relevant insights for sustainable resource management and regional planning.

This study examines the discourse ‘Don’t Thai to me’ within the context of the Cambodia–Thailand armed conflict. Data were drawn from Cambodian state media, official Facebook posts, and other authoritative sources from 24–28 July 2025 during the outbreak of armed conflict. The analysis follows Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, complemented by speech act theory and other relevant linguistic analyses. The discussion addresses three dimensions of this communication event. For text, the term ‘Thai’ shifts from a neutral national identifier to a stigmatized label of dishonesty in a prohibitive, which performs directive, assertive, and expressive speech acts. For discourse practice, production through official communication channels and rapid online circulation demonstrates how digital platforms enable massive engagement and dissemination, resulting also in popular cultural content. At the socio-cultural level, the discourse resonates with long-standing historical antagonisms rooted in Cambodian folklore, further reinforced by concurrent economic and political tensions between the authorities of the two states.

The functional role of leaders of informal groups of convicts in the penitentiary subculture system and their influence on intra-group norms, the institution manageability, and the re-socialization processes have been studied. The purpose of the study is to identify the mechanisms of forming and maintaining informal leadership and describe its functions and ways to counter destructive influence. The methodological basis of the research was the analysis, synthesis, comparison, and generalization of scientific sources, content analysis of publications and dissertation research, as well as systematic and structural-functional approaches. The working definition of a leader of an informal group of convicts has been clarified. A typology of leaders has been proposed by functional role (organizational, regulatory-arbitration, informational, and economic), sources of authority (status-traditional, resource, power, and communicative-charismatic), and the scale of influence (local, intergroup, and general management). The stability of leadership status is ensured by a combination of reputation, resource control, authorization, and mediation, which increases the resistance of convicts to official demands and reduces involvement in correctional programs. The practical significance of the study is related to the substantiation of a set of measures – regime – organizational, psychological-pedagogical, and personnel-training, – aimed at reducing the resource and regulatory monopoly of informal leaders. The prospects of the research are the typology empirical verification and evaluation of the proposed measures effectiveness in various types of institutions.

ABSTRACT This article traces how European mediation has repeatedly rebalanced three variables—(1) the source of mediator authority, (2) the degree of institutionalization, and (3) the operative meaning of voluntariness—from antiquity to the present. Using three periods—Proto‐Mediation (c. 500 BCE–c. 1750), Classical Mediation (c. 1750–1976), and ADR‐Era Mediation (1976–present)—it shows how authority migrated from communal standing to professional or court‐adjacent credential; how informal practice became standardized procedure; and how voluntariness shifted from social expectation to legally managed participation (sometimes via “mandatory” gateways). The analysis explains contemporary court‐connected designs as the latest turn in a long European cycle and offers a historically grounded synthesis centred on the authority–institutionalization–voluntariness triad. How have authority, institutionalization, and voluntariness been historically reconfigured in European mediation, and what do these recurrent configurations imply for the design and legitimacy of contemporary court‐connected mediation?

ABSTRACT Postsecondary policymaking has entered an era of entrenched partisanship. Yet scholars have rarely sought to explain partisan differences in postsecondary policy support. This paper proposes that differences in information consumption among lawmakers are associated with and help explain political differences in support for higher education policies. Extending research on policy knowledge use, we challenge C.P. Snow’s “Two Cultures” framework by showing that policymakers draw on multiple, competing sources of authority—often outside traditional expert channels. Drawing on a national survey of state legislators, we use exploratory structural equation modeling to predict lawmaker support for policies related to campus carry, undocumented students, campus sexual assault, and political viewpoint diversity. We find that lawmakers differ in their reliance on sources of information related to legislative expertise, technical expertise, and religious authority. Moreover, the results suggest that the polarization of higher education policy among lawmakers reflects partisan differences in the kinds of information they consume.

Enterprise adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence has shifted from exploratory piloting to mission-critical deployment, reshaping how organizations manage internal knowledge, accelerate developer productivity, and reduce operational friction. At the center of this transformation sits Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) — an architectural pattern that grounds large language model (LLM) outputs in verified, organization-specific data rather than relying solely on fixed training corpora. RAG systems retrieve relevant documents from external knowledge bases at query time and inject that content into LLM prompts before generation, producing responses that are accurate, contextually appropriate, and traceable to authoritative sources. This directly addresses the hallucination problem that makes generic LLM deployment unsuitable for high-stakes enterprise contexts. The five thematic areas covered — vector database infrastructure, prompt engineering, RAG pipeline design, enterprise change management, and organizational AI adoption — collectively define the practical landscape of production-grade GenAI deployment. Together, these elements form a system that demonstrably reduces onboarding support burdens, accelerates developer time-to-productivity, and strengthens knowledge accessibility across large engineering teams. The practical significance of this integrated architecture extends beyond individual productivity gains — it positions engineering organizations to operate with greater velocity, accuracy, and resilience as the volume and complexity of internal technical knowledge continues to grow.

ABSTRACT In this article, based on a selection of 267 semi-structured personal interviews with Buddhist practitioners conducted for the project “Buddhism in Italy” (2022–2023), we investigate the present state of Buddhism in Italy, accounting for its plural, hybrid, and global ethos. We enquire into the ways in which the three main forms of legitimate domination classically theorized by Max Weber—‘legal’ or ‘rational’, ‘traditional’, and ‘charismatic’—inform the processes of diffusion, development, and transformation of Buddhism in Italy. We couple Weber’s theory with Peter Berger’s analysis of religious pluralism to show how legal, traditional, and charismatic forms of authority intertwine with and contribute to the proliferation of multiple sources of authority in Italian Buddhism. In so doing, we introduce the concept of multiple charismas, seeking to clarify how Italian Buddhism is governed, regulated, and socially organized following different plausibility structures which are based on the coexistence of multiple sources of authority (a plurality of charismatic figures, a centralized institutional apparatus and governance structure, and socially engaged leadership models).

Purpose: The Sixteenth Chapter, with its explicit delineation of divine (daivī) and demoniac (āsurī) traits, provides a powerful ethical framework perfectly suited for a multi-faceted analysis aimed at societal transformation. The purpose of this research analysis-based case study is to utilize the sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita as a diagnostic framework for evaluating modern civilizational health. By delineating the contrast between divine (daivī) and demoniac (āsurī) traits, the study seeks to identify the root causes of contemporary global crises. Ultimately, the paper aims to propose a transformative "New Ethics" that fosters individual resilience and collective flourishing through the conscious cultivation of virtuous qualities. Methodology: This exploratory case study employs a qualitative research methodology, synthesizing data from diverse scholarly and digital repositories—including Google Scholar, authoritative web sources, and generative AI platforms (GPTs). The gathered information is systematically evaluated through established analytical frameworks aligned with the study’s core objectives. Results/Analysis: The analysis identifies a systemic correlation between the rise of "demoniac" traits—such as insatiable greed and arrogance—and the escalating global crises of the modern era. By mapping these scriptural archetypes onto contemporary social and economic behaviors, the research demonstrates that civilizational decline is primarily a failure of internal character. The results conclude that a deliberate shift toward "divine" virtues is the only viable mechanism for building long-term ethical resilience and collective stability. Originality/Value: The originality of this research lies in its novel application of the Bhagavad Gita’s ancient ethical dualism as a systematic diagnostic tool for modern, large-scale civilizational crises. Its primary value exists in bridging the gap between spiritual wisdom and practical governance, offering a measurable "Daivī-Āsurī" framework to cultivate institutional resilience and collective ethical health in an increasingly volatile world. Type of Paper: Qualitative Exploratory Research Analysis.

ABSTRACT Machiavelli appeals to the example of the Persian Empire when treating the Roman republic’s rise to power, method of rule, and decline into tyranny. When considering how Rome subjugated its neighboring cities in the Discourses on Livy, he insists that Rome used fraud in a manner akin to the Cyrus of Xenophon’s depiction; both came to power from humble beginnings through duplicity. In The Prince, Machiavelli traces how the Roman republic left a path of destruction in Italy, Greece, Africa, and Spain, ultimately achieving a level of control comparable to that of Darius’s kingdom, which serves for Machiavelli as an example of rule with a supreme head that denies all others of independent sources of authority. Machiavelli also appeals to Xenophon’s depiction of Cyrus as a merciful, humane, and affable ruler in when treating Scipio, and in the Discourses when treating Valerius. Machiavelli indicates how dangerous such an appealing commander can be in republics, because such leaders can acquire partisans who give them excessive influence and power. Caesar proved to be such a commander. Supported by his partisans, Caesar became Rome’s first tyrant. Rome’s long rule over its empire rendered its provinces servile.

Digital twins are emerging as transformative tools in modern healthcare, representing a paradigm shift toward precision medicine by offering living, data-driven computational replicas of patients or organs that evolve with real-time information. As solutions to the growing demand for personalised, precision-based therapeutic approaches, digital twins play a particularly significant role in transplantation, which is characterised by its data-rich care pathway, time-critical decisions, and complex lifelong immunologic management, making it an ideal environment for precision medicine applications. This narrative review examines how digital twins are being conceptualised and applied across the entire transplant lifecycle, from donor assessment and organ preservation through to operative planning, immunosuppression management, and long-term surveillance, while proposing a pragmatic roadmap for clinical translation. We conducted targeted literature searches between June and October 2025, focusing on digital twin applications in transplantation, machine perfusion technologies, precision immunosuppression dosing, immune modelling, and virtual organ systems. We prioritised scoping reviews, mechanistic studies, clinical investigations, and authoritative technology sources. Foundational applications include liver virtual twins for living donor transplantation, data streams from normothermic machine perfusion platforms enabling organ quality assessment, model-informed precision dosing systems for tacrolimus approaching closed-loop control, and conceptual immune system twins for rejection risk prediction. Evidence ranges from mechanistic simulations and preprints to early clinical pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies, though rigorous prospective validation remains limited. Digital twins hold substantial promise for augmenting transplant decisions throughout the clinical pathway, but require rigorous validation, interoperable data infrastructure, and governance frameworks aligned with safety and equity principles before widespread adoption.

Advances in natural medicinal plant-based interventions against hypoxia-related neuroinflammation.

Does the source and distinctiveness of misinformation in social media posts affect its believability? Across two studies, we examine this question utilizing vignette experimental survey designs that manipulated the source, accuracy of information, and whether the information was familiar or distinctive (unfamiliar). Four different topics with different political or moral positions were used to assess how effects varied across topics. True posts were found to be more believable than misinformation posts across the four topics in Study one (n = 595). In study two (n = 514), misinformation was rated as more believable, more accurate, and more trustworthy if it was unfamiliar rather than familiar. Source effects were significant but smaller than the distinctiveness effect. Posts from the source of authority were rated as more believable than those from a friend. Distinctive messages receive initial assessments of higher credibility, suggesting a heuristic process. However, the personally relevant topic of COVID, showed higher believability for unfamiliar misinformation, but also a higher percentage intending to verify the information through additional research. Those supporting more conservative views perceived misinformation as more believable. These findings are consistent with the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

The multi-level semantic structure of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formulas makes their efficacy difficult to represent in a computable way. To develop an interpretable and statistically rigorous computational model for quantitatively predicting the dominant efficacies of classical TCM herbal formulas. A knowledge graph encompassing five semantic entities-disease, syndrome, symptom, efficacy, and herb-was constructed to standardize and infer multi-level efficacy relationships. Based on this structure, the Hypergeometric Efficacy Prediction Model (HEPM) was established, using hypergeometric enrichment analysis to assess whether specific efficacies are significantly aggregated within a formula. A curated dataset of 174 classical formulas from authoritative TCM sources was used for model validation. HEPM effectively reproduced characteristic efficacy patterns of classical prescriptions, achieving an average F1-score of 0.63 across 174 formulas. The knowledge-graph structure resolved semantic inconsistency and incompleteness in traditional efficacy descriptions, enhancing the integrity and computability of efficacy information. HEPM provides a statistically grounded and interpretable framework for modeling efficacy formation in TCM herbal formulas. The method offers a replicable approach for efficacy prediction and supports the development of knowledge-driven intelligent TCM analysis and clinical decision-support applications.

The article examines environmental and legal issues related to water resources in Ukraine. In his scientific work, the author analyses the critical ecological state of the Black and Azov Seas, rivers, lakes, and groundwater in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into our territory and the global nature of the environmental damage caused by the enemy’s military actions to these natural resources. In this area, legal relations are monitored using statistical data from official public sources and from sources of state executive authorities regarding the environmental disaster observed in the aquatic environment of Ukraine. It should be noted that the institute of reparation of Russian funds to Ukraine for damage caused to the natural environment, including the water fund of Ukraine, and ways of its implementation in the legal sphere are being studied. The article examines national regulatory legal acts, international treaties, and conventions in the field of water relations, which are aimed at protecting and rationally using water, and legal gaps in the field of water relations, which Ukraine, together with international partners, is obliged to address for a prosperous environmental future for society as a whole. In the context of our country’s integration into the European Union, we need to implement many more European Union directives on environmental legislation related to water resources at the national level and to reform the management apparatus of Ukraine's water fund. In this regard, the author examines the mechanism of international cooperation between Ukraine and the Kingdom of Denmark to improve and update groundwater management in our country in the post-war period. The study notes the need to reform water monitoring at the state level to meet modern European standards and requirements and to create sanitary protection zones for the aquatic environment in Ukraine to protect and restore our water resources, ensure the continued existence of ecologically healthy flora and fauna in them, and ensure their future protection and restoration.

Cancer fatalism is a significant barrier to cancer prevention and treatment, especially among those with a family history of cancer. While eHealth information can influence cancer fatalism beliefs, the mechanisms behind this effect require further exploration. This study, using SOR theory, investigates whether eHealth information use can reduce cancer fatalism in individuals with a family history of cancer and elucidates the mechanisms involved.Data from the sixth National Trends in Health Information Survey (HINTS6) focused on participants with a family history of cancer (N = 3131). A serial-mediation model examined how eHealth information use affects cancer fatalism through mediators of cancer worry, frequency of doctor visits, and trust in cancer information from doctors.eHealth information use was negatively correlated with cancer fatalism. Additionally, cancer worry, frequency of doctor visits, and trust in cancer information from doctors were positively correlated with eHealth information use. Trust in cancer information from doctors was negatively correlated with cancer fatalism.These findings suggest that eHealth information, combined with interventions and offline communication with physicians, can effectively reduce cancer fatalism among individuals with a family history of cancer. Public health departments should leverage eHealth platforms to communicate accurate cancer information and foster trust in authoritative health sources like doctors, encouraging positive health behaviors and reducing cancer fatalism.

The rapid development of large language models (LLMs) has stimulated growing interest in medical intelligent agents for clinical decision support. However, existing systems often suffer from limited grounding in authoritative medical knowledge, potential safety risks, and a tendency to generate definitive diagnostic conclusions without sufficient clinical context. In this work, we present the design of a medical intelligent agent aimed at supporting clinical decision-making through evidence-grounded information retrieval and safety-aware interaction. The proposed system focuses on two primary functions: (i) providing drug usage guidance, dosage information, and food–drug interaction warnings based on authoritative medical knowledge sources, and (ii) retrieving relevant clinical guidelines in response to patient-reported symptoms to assist clinicians with differential diagnostic considerations rather than definitive diagnoses. To mitigate safety risks, the agent is explicitly constrained to avoid diagnostic claims and instead emphasizes guideline-based recommendations and referral suggestions when appropriate. The agent integrates structured medical knowledge retrieval with natural language interaction, enabling users to obtain context-aware, interpretable and clinically relevant responses. By grounding outputs in curated medical references and enforcing non-diagnostic constraints, the system aims to reduce hallucinations and enhance reliability in medical consultations. This work highlights the potential of retrieval-augmented medical intelligent agents as supportive tools for clinical decision support, medical education, and patient-facing health information services, while underscoring the importance of safety, transparency, and scope limitation in medical AI deployment.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) continue to be the leading cause of mortality worldwide, accounting for approximately 19.8 million deaths in 2022, with ischemic heart disease and stroke responsible for the majority of this burden. Despite improvements in health systems, CVD mortality has increased across all World Health Organization (WHO) regions, reflecting population ageing, persistent exposure to behavioural and metabolic risk factors, and marked regional inequities. India, within the WHO South-East Asia Region, contributes substantially to global CVD mortality and exhibits pronounced inter-state variation. A comprehensive synthesis of global and national CVD mortality patterns, subtype distribution, risk-factor profiles, and policy responses is essential for guiding prevention strategies and advancing progress toward Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.4. This study employed a descriptive epidemiological review design using publicly available secondary data from authoritative sources, including WHO Global Health Estimates (2000–2020), WHO Global Summary Estimates, Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2020, the India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative (ISLDBI), and reports from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The review followed a structured framework encompassing (i) global and Indian CVD mortality burden and temporal trends, (ii) distribution of major behavioural and metabolic CVD risk factors, and (iii) synthesis of global and Indian policy initiatives for CVD prevention and control. Globally, the number of deaths attributable to CVDs increased steadily from 14.3 million in 2000 to 17.8 million in 2020, with ischemic heart disease accounting for the largest share, followed by stroke. Substantial variation was observed in the proportion of deaths due to CVDs across WHO regions. In India, CVD deaths rose from 1.69 million in 2000 to 2.56 million in 2020, with the proportion of total deaths attributable to CVDs increasing from 24.3% to 35.3%. Marked disparities were evident across state groups. High systolic blood pressure emerged as the leading risk factor for CVD mortality globally and in India, followed by elevated LDL cholesterol and fasting plasma glucose. The findings highlight a sustained rise in CVD mortality globally and in India, driven primarily by ischemic heart disease and stroke, with pronounced regional and subnational disparities. Strengthening population-level prevention, risk-factor control, and equitable implementation of existing cardiovascular health programmes is critical for reducing the growing CVD burden and achieving SDG 3.4.

ABSTRACT Violence against women, particularly killings committed in the name of so-called ‘family honour,‘ is often analysed within the broader framework of Arab society in Israel, while limited attention has been given to the internal dynamics of specific communities. Druze society, despite its distinctive religious, social, and communal structures, has rarely been examined separately in this context. This study addresses this gap by analysing attitudes toward femicide among Druze individuals aged 70 and above in Israel, a group traditionally regarded as an important source of authority in shaping communal norms and moral discourse. The research employs a mixed-methods design combining a quantitative descriptive survey with a supportive qualitative component. The sample included 102 participants aged 70+, recruited through community networks and snowball sampling. Participants completed a structured questionnaire including closed-ended items and two open-ended questions. Quantitative findings indicate no statistically significant differences in attitudes toward femicide based on gender, level of religiosity, or place of residence. Qualitative responses, however, reveal a strong rejection of femicide, framed as incompatible with Druze communal values. Participants emphasised religious principles, legal norms, and the sanctity of life, while describing traditional responses to social deviation as involving non-violent social sanctions rather than physical violence.

Abstract. The increased occurrence of multiple cascading and compounding hazards underlines the importance of integrated- and multi-hazard-based assessment approaches for the development of thorough strategies towards disaster resilience. To this purpose, a national-scale multi-hazard risk assessment was conducted between September 2020 and December 2021 for Burundi, focusing on the natural hazards flooding, torrential rains, landslides, earthquakes, and strong winds. This integrated multi-hazard assessment resulted in comparable nationwide provincial and commune-scale Annual Average Loss (AAL) values, further aggregated to provide a preliminary estimate of the resulting overall risk. Historical climatology (1990–2019) was computed, and a preliminary evaluation of the potential effects of climate change in the future period (2020–2049) was carried out. Data availability and reliability were challenging throughout the whole assessment and were tackled by integrating local authoritative sources with international and global resources. An up-to-date exposure model was implemented and complemented by an indicator-based socioeconomic vulnerability assessment. Furthermore, a data-driven statistical susceptibility model for shallow landslides has been derived at national scale. The consequent multi-hazard risk assessment provides an approximate picture of the expected nationwide risk distribution in economic terms. The results should support the identification of priority areas and actions for disaster risk management. From a research perspective, the paper provides a transparent, hazard-wise framework that harmonises heterogeneous hazard, exposure and vulnerability information into comparable risk metrics in data-scarce environments. From a practice perspective, the resulting risk estimates are intended as a pragmatic baseline for multi-hazard comparison and prioritisation, supporting the identification of areas where DRR efforts and data improvements may be most impactful.