Specific Practices Research Articles (Page 1)

ABSTRACT A unified theoretical framework that comprehensively explains soil conservation behavior remains elusive. This underscores the significance and novelty of research exploring the psychological factors influencing farmers’ decisions. The concept of “connection to soil” captures the emotional bond that farmers develop with the land. We hypothesized that connection to soil acts as a mediator, strengthening the relationship between farmers’ pro-environmental propensity (broad commitment to environmental protection) and their adoption of soil conservation practices. This study involved 150 farmers, equally distributed across three culturally and geographically diverse regions in Chile. Our target population consisted of farmers who independently manage soil practices on their farms. Data collection utilized surveys incorporating three validated scales: pro-environmental propensity, connection to soil, and soil conservation behavior. While pro-environmental propensity directly predicted the adoption of specific soil conservation practices, this study highlights the crucial role of connection to soil in translating this general environmental motivation into concrete actions. Notably, we identified a significant indirect effect of pro-environmental propensity on soil conservation behavior mediated by connection to soil (ab = 0.15, 95 % CI [0.05, 0.26], p<0.001). This finding is particularly relevant because traditional soil science education has primarily focused on psychomotor and cognitive learning, neglecting the affective domain (emotions and feelings). Consequently, the potential of fostering connection to soil as a response to global soil degradation has been under-emphasized. Our contribution lies in highlighting the importance of connection to soil as a factor influencing farmers’ soil conservation behavior.

Formal support is essential for promoting recovery and healing of victim-survivors of domestic, family, and sexual violence (DFSV). Trauma-and-violence-informed care (TVIC) aims to improve outcomes and minimize harm for trauma survivors accessing support. Despite its existence, services are not adequately meeting the needs of victim-survivors of DFSV and continue to cause harm. Guiding frameworks that can be consistently applied across services are thus needed. This qualitative meta-synthesis systematically integrates service providers' perspectives on what constitutes effective TVIC for victim-survivors of DFSV to determine practices and principles to better support victim-survivor recovery when providing care. Seven databases were searched for peer-reviewed articles and gray literature in June 2023, with an updated search in September 2024. Twenty-nine articles were included in the study, representing 694 service providers across a range of settings. A thematic synthesis approach resulted in eight key themes outlining principles of TVIC for DFSV service provision, including six individual-level themes: (a) safety, (b) survivor-centered care, (c) respectful emotional support, (d) non-judgmental, reciprocal client-practitioner relationship, (e) supporting victim-survivors to thrive, and (f) cultural safety and inclusivity; and two system-level themes: (g) provision of effective and accessible services, and (h) providing holistic services. The findings identified a holistic, trauma-and-violence-informed, survivor-centered, and inclusive approach to supporting victim-survivors, describing principles, values, and specific practices which can be applied by practitioners and services to improve service outcomes and facilitate recovery and healing.

In Lithuania, the year 2024 has been identified as a pivotal moment for healthcare reform, which encompasses two primary objectives: implementing a proactive public health policy and enhancing the accessibility, quality, and efficiency of healthcare through the restructuring of the service delivery network. This reform is essential for remote regions, where demographic shifts have modified service requirements. Certain services, such as midwifery, have diminished, while others, including elderly nursing care, require reestablishment. Adapting to these reforms has disrupted competencies, underscoring their importance as a critical area for regional development, particularly in enhancing new resources. By analysing the public health reform in Lithuania through the lens of remote regions, it becomes possible to identify specific strategies and practices that can be applied both nationally and internationally. The study aims to highlight shifts in the emerging needs of healthcare personnel's competencies in remote regional areas, particularly during the national healthcare system's structural transformations, and their capacity to achieve the reform goal of delivering top-quality health services based on transformative competencies. The study uses qualitative interviews to identify the competencies health professionals lack following the establishment of new Primary Health Care Centres. The study revealed that while clinical and professional competencies related to legal and clinical responsibilities are easier to adopt from a technical standpoint, competencies like leadership, collaboration, and patient involvement pose greater challenges, leading to community stress. The acquisition of these competencies requires long-term investment in staff development, emotional support, and clear change management. Moreover, the new structure of health centers and newly introduced work processes may increase employees’ emotional exhaustion, stress, or even the risk of burnout if adequate support or training is not provided.

Samuel and Isabella Beeton’s Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine (1852–79), a key periodical for middle-class women in Victorian England, is best remembered for features like culinary recipes, fashion plates and embroidery patterns. However, it also contained regular columns about the treatment of illnesses and the promotion of health and wellbeing. This contribution considers a corpus of 140 articles taken from the column “The sick room and nursery” and from classified ads published regularly in the magazine between 1852 and 1860 in order to focus on the topic of health and nourishment. Specific corpus queries demonstrate the pervasiveness of discourses related to food, diet, and nutrition both as promoters of health and as key factors in recovering from diseases. Moreover, the attention on previously generally neglected sections of the magazine aims to shed more light on the importance of food discourses that went beyond the simple recipes, while at the same time contributing to the dissemination of medical knowledge to lay readers (mainly, but not exclusively, middle-class women in this case). By tracing these discourses, the article reveals how the periodical functioned not only as a guide for domestic management, but also as a tool for socialising women into specific health practices.

ABSTRACT High‐quality teaching is vital for accommodating the individualised learning needs of diverse students. However, compared with specific explicit teaching practices, teaching styles that determine their use of teaching methods have received much less attention. This study investigated the contributions of inclusive education teachers' work motivation to their teaching styles and the mediating role of work engagement. A total of 515 teachers from inclusive primary schools in Guangzhou, China, participated in this study. Results showed that autonomous motivation positively predicted creativity‐generating (Type I) teaching styles and that controlled motivation positively predicted norm‐favouring (Type II) styles—beyond teachers' gender, age, length of teaching and in‐service training. The absorption dimension of work engagement mediated autonomous motivation's positive prediction for Type I styles, and it activated that for Type II styles. It was concluded that autonomous work motivation and absorption are the keys to cultivating teachers' diverse teaching styles in the inclusive education context. Theoretical contributions, practical implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

Multicultural and heterogenous society has prompted policymakers and regulators to prioritize creation of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive economic environment. In addition, noticeable increase in companies’ focus for ethical actions is driven to improve corporate performance and to build stakeholders’ confidence and trustworthiness. Hence, the aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of ethical leadership related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and practices on sustainability performance. Considering the interdisciplinary nature of this relationship, the research integrates a holistic theoretical framework. Governance theories explain the equilibrium between managers’ behavior and stakeholders’ expectations, economic theories describe the understanding of resource allocation for strategic decisions, while social theories provide evidence regarding human behavior and culture in sustainable companies. The present study utilizes the Diversity and Inclusion Score (DIS), provided by the LSEG methodology, to present the integrated DEI policies and practices. Muchmore, specific mechanisms of corporate governance related to board cultural diversity, board gender diversity, and executive gender diversity extend the measurement of DEI policies and practices. Sustainability performance is assessed through environmental, social and governance (ESG) score. The data are collected from Thomson Reuters Eikon database for non-financial international companies, during the 2020-2024 period. A final sample of 4,163 company-year observations is used to respond to three research hypotheses. Fixed effects robust regressions are employed to emphasize the impact of integrated and specific diversity-oriented policies and practices on ESG performance. Results indicate significant positive influence of DEI policies and practices on sustainability performance. Muchmore, the moderating effects included in analysis show that irrespective of the specific corporate governance mechanisms of diversity, the presence of integrated DEI policies and practices reduces the positive and significant impact on companies’ sustainability performance. The robustness test emphasizes the positive influence that various pillars of DIS have on ESG performance. With a multi-layered approach, this study contributes to academic and practical understanding by promoting diverse and inclusive leadership as a key corporate governance mechanism that enhances sustainability performance.

To characterize and compare the bread-making practices and microbial diversity of traditional and bakery sourdoughs from Lebanon and determine how specific practices shape microbial diversity. Thirty bread-making practices variables from 26 Lebanese bakers were analyzed using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) and hierarchical clustering, which revealed three distinct bread-making groups. The first group (wheat flour sourdough) was characterized by the use of wheat flour, frequent backsloppings, high hydration, and fermentation temperatures. The second group (wheat flour Epiphany sourdough) included traditional household practices involving non-backslopped fermented sourdough with lower hydration and fermentation temperatures. The third group (maize flour sourdough) was distinguished by the use of maize flour during sourdough making. Metabarcoding (V3V4 and ITS1) of 50 sourdoughs revealed 141 fungal and 98 bacterial species. In parallel, 351 yeast strains were isolated and identified, providing a valuable Lebanese genetic resource. PERMANOVA on weighted_UniFrac distance clustered bacterial and fungal communities into three significantly different groups, associated with bread-making practices. Non-backslopped "wheat flour Epiphany" sourdoughs exhibited a significantly higher Shannon index compared to the two other sourdough groups. Their microbial communities were characterized by the presence of various bacterial and fungal families, including Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Erwiniaceae, Lactobacillaceae, and several filamentous fungi. In contrast, regularly backslopped sourdoughs were dominated by Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscensis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These differences in microbial community could be statistically linked to several factors, including temperature and hydration, which were higher in regularly backlopped sourdoughs. This study provides the first comprehensive analysis of contrasted sourdough bread-making practices and microbial species diversity in Lebanon and highlight how variations in backslopping practices can significantly influence microbial species diversity and composition in traditional sourdoughs.

Abstract This article examines how ethical consumption is constrained by the configuration of social practices by focusing specifically on online fashion shopping. Existing ethical consumption research shows that consumers’ pro-environmental and pro-social concerns fail to translate into ethical purchasing actions. Such research has focused on the idea of a rational consumer motivated to act ethically. Conversely, we advance a socio-cultural perspective on ethical consumption by theorising ethics as a cultural-level general understanding that threads through consumption activities within social practices. Like other general understandings, ethics can become inculcated into specific practices, or obstructed from doing so, due to the configuration of a practice. Drawing upon qualitative research with 58 participants, our findings show how the configuration of online fashion retail consistently blocks ethical online fashion shopping. This fosters practice destabilisation, frustration and deepened ethical reflexivity, triggering strategies for practice reconfiguration. While some practitioners stop shopping online, for others, the struggle to shop ethically becomes habituated within online fashion shopping. We contribute to the literature on ethical consumption by establishing how ethics fails to embed in consumption and by providing a socio-cultural theorisation of ethics as a general understanding that can be enabled or constrained in social practices. The significance of these contributions lies in their ability to determine that ethical consumption is constrained beyond the level of individual agency; that it can be incredibly frustrating for consumers to attempt to find individuated solutions to systemic problems; and that ethical consumption is not just the responsibility of ethically minded consumers.

Purpose This study investigates the influence of environmental policy and training (ENVPLTR) on green performance (GRENPERF) in the hospitality industry, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of resource conservation (RESCONS), energy conservation (ENRCONS), and organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (ORGCBE). The study aims to provide insights into how policy initiatives and employee actions contribute to sustainable outcomes in the hospitality and tourism sectors. Design/methodology/approach The data for this study are collected through adapted questionnaire. Sample size was 309 employees working in three to five star-rated hotels in Haryana, India. PLS-SEM (structural equation modeling) was applied to examine to validate and test the proposed model. The PLS-SEM analysis was performed using SmartPLS-4 software. Findings The findings indicate that environmental policy and training significantly influence green performance. The mediation effects of resource conservation, energy conservation, and organizational citizenship behavior were also significant between environmental policy and green performance. Among these mediators, ORGCBE had the strongest indirect effect. The overall model explained 40.3% of the variance in green performance, emphasizing the importance of combining institutional policies with employee-driven sustainability actions to enhance environmental outcomes. Practical implications This study offers a valuable blueprint for organizations aiming to achieve sustainable transformation, particularly in resource-constrained and rapidly developing service economies. Originality/value This research provides new findings by linking environmental policies, training, and specific actions and practices of employees in the organization. The use of several mediating variables (RESCONS, ENRCONS and ORGCBE) improves the theory by explaining how factors at both the organizational and individual levels influence green performance. In addition, the study provides useful tips for hospitality managers and policymakers, highlighting the importance of supporting sustainability in places like Haryana, India.

This study aimed to assess the effect of credit risk management (CRM) on the profitability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Mongu, Zambia. The objectives were to evaluate the existing CRM framework, its effect on revenue, and its impact on operational costs. Using a mixed-method approach data were collected from a sample of nine MFIs. The study addresses a critical research gap, the lack of empirical studies linking specific CRM practices to profitability outcomes within Zambian MFIs, particularly Mongu. The findings revealed that all MFIs have formal CRM frameworks and adhere strictly to credit appraisal procedures, 100% response from MFIs, regularly conduct creditworthiness assessments, and train staff on risk identification and mitigation. Regarding revenue, effective CRM practices were found to significantly enhance loan repayment rates (100%), reduce defaults, and improve interest income and revenue collection (88.9%). One-sample t-tests confirmed these observations, with significant results (p = 0.0067). With regard to Cost, findings showed that 88.9% of MFIs agreed that CRM increases operational expenses due to monitoring, credit assessments, and staff workload, while 69.7% recognized that investments in CRM systems and training are cost-effective in the long term. One-sample t-tests confirmed to have a significant impact on increasing costs with p = 0.0467. The study concluded that CRM is pivotal in enhancing MFI profitability by strengthening revenue streams and minimizing default risks despite higher operational costs. It recommends improving collateral requirements, adopting robust credit scoring systems, continuous staff training, and leveraging digital CRM technologies to improve efficiency and cost management. Thus, the results confirm a strong relationship between credit risk management and profitability, confirmed by the statistically significant tests (p < 0.05). This study contributes to existing literature by providing qualitative, context specific evidence from Mongu, Zambia, showing how CRM frameworks affect both revenue generation and cost structures.

Bacterial infections risk scale for injection drug use: A brief screener to identify skin and soft tissue infection risk for people who inject drugs.

Does information matter? The effect of sustainability-related information on consumers' intentions to purchase beef.

Effectively managing truck driver fatigue is essential for ensuring driver safety, as fatigue negatively impacts health and performance. Since fatigue is a complex, multidimensional issue with various cause–effect relationships, it requires a comprehensive management approach. This systematic review investigates truck driver fatigue management strategies currently available in the road freight industry. The review analyses and synthesises fatigue management recommendations from 32 resources, leading to the identification of overarching themes and the development of suitable frameworks. The findings highlight that fatigue management focuses on operational systems and processes, safety culture and practices, and driver health and well-being. Effective fatigue management should encompass each of these themes, whereby the specific proactive, real-time, and reactive practices are interlinked to support feedback loops, emphasising the application of a change management model. Further research that develops and empirically tests an actionable toolkit integrating the proposed frameworks in a developing country will enhance our understanding of the unique operating environment. This review acts as a foundational tool for management and researchers, highlighting available strategies for managing truck driver fatigue while emphasising that fatigue risk cannot be addressed by a singular approach, but rather that a combination of interconnected systems is required.

This study examines the relationship between sustainable practices and corporate profitability in Colombian enterprises using data from 3572 responses to the FAEDPYME 2022 survey. Through Structural Equation Modeling, the research analyzes how environmental criteria and sustainability perceptions impact business performance, considering operational efficiency and corporate reputation as mediators. The results demonstrate that environmental supplier selection, energy efficiency management, and environmental certifications positively correlate with increased profitability. Conversely, plastic packaging management shows a negative relationship. The perception that sustainability enhances profitability strongly is associated with higher business performance. Both operational efficiency and corporate reputation serve as significant mediators in these relationships. The study confirms that the strategic implementation of specific sustainable practices is positively associated with enhanced corporate profitability. Furthermore, a managerial conviction that sustainability drives profitability appears to be a significant factor in achieving such positive financial outcomes.

Black individuals in the United States face disproportionately high rates of police violence, which profoundly impacts their physical, mental, and spiritual health. Courageous Connection was developed to explore the potential of mindfulness to improve relations between Black community members and the police in Flint, Michigan. In this qualitative study, we analyzed sessions of a 6-week culturally tailored mindfulness group attended by 12 Black community leaders (BCLs) in preparation for a community dialogue with members of the police force, who were also receiving mindfulness training. Thematic analysis of session transcripts focused on three core questions: (1) How did instructors present mindfulness and what it had to offer to BCLs, (2) what cultural adaptations were made to engage and address the needs of the group, and (3) how did BCLs respond and integrate these practices into their lives? The BCL participants spoke about what it means to be Black in America and mindfulness as an embodied resource they already had. Cultural adaptations included references to the Black church, as well as specific antioppressive mindfulness practices. Despite some barriers to attendance, participants reported a range of positive responses to the practices, including expressions of gratitude and increases in insight and awareness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

ABSTRACT When asking for something significant from another person, speakers not only set the tilt of the question toward the affirmative or negative but also display an optimistic or pessimistic stance toward the request’s ultimate fulfillment. Existing sociological theories provide contrasting predictions about whether optimism or pessimism will dominate request behavior in routine social interactions. This paper evaluates the relative strength of these predictions using conversation analysis (CA), supplemented with structured coding and inferential statistics, to examine everyday requests in seven diverse language communities. We focus on two specific practices for making requests—the tilt of the requesting talk and the use of pre-requests. We find that speakers exhibit a systematic preference for requesting with optimistic stances despite frequently encountering resistance from interlocutors. Consonant with Cerulo’s concept of positive asymmetry, the details of everyday behavior reveal a pervasive bias wherein interactants treat socially desirable, cooperative outcomes as expected while disattending from potential resistance.

Community participation is critical for health, particularly during young adulthood. Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) programs for young adults with early psychosis aim to promote community participation; however, research on practices beyond those focused on employment, education, and family relationships is limited. This qualitative study explored CSC programs' community participation practices across a broad range of areas and the factors influencing their implementation. Following a national survey, individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 CSC program leaders to examine ten specific practices. Recorded responses were transcribed and qualitatively analyzed using an integrated thematic analysis approach. Findings revealed that programs implemented a range of practices, including outreach to mainstream organizations, fostering mutual support among clients, facilitating independent community participation, and providing targeted support in spirituality/religion, intimate relationships, and civic engagement activities. Effective leadership, organizational culture, and staff factors (e.g., knowledge, skills, supportive attitudes and behaviors) emerged as key facilitators, while primary barriers included limited resources, staff challenges (e.g., lack of training), and environmental challenges (e.g., stigma, rural settings). Client-level factors, such as motivation and interference from symptoms, and the perceived effectiveness and acceptability of various practices, also impacted implementation. Recommendations include enhancing leadership buy-in, staff training, and creative resource use to overcome barriers and sustain community participation efforts. This study highlights variability across CSC programs and provides actionable strategies to strengthen community participation practices for young adults with early psychosis.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally, with increasing prevalence in low- and middle-income countries, including Nigeria. Academic staff are often exposed to sedentary lifestyles and occupational stress, which may elevate their risk of developing CVDs. Understanding their knowledge and preventive practices is crucial for targeted interventions. This study assessed the knowledge of the types, risk factors, and preventive practices of cardiovascular diseases among academic staff of Abia State University, Uturu, Abia State, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 253 academic staff selected using a two-stage sampling technique. Simple random sampling was used to select seven faculties, while availability sampling was employed to recruit respondents. A structured, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the results and were presented in tables. The majority of the respondents (58.1%) were male and within the 31–40 age group (36.8%). A high proportion (99.2%) had heard of CVDs, and 86.6% correctly identified a heart attack as a type of CVD. Knowledge of risk factors was high for smoking (99.6%), excessive alcohol intake (98.4%), and unhealthy diets (92.9%), while knowledge was lower for diabetes (6.7%) and obesity (4.0%). Preventive practices such as regular medical checkups were reported by 43.9%, while 54.5% monitored their blood pressure or cholesterol regularly. The internet and social media (53.0%) were the major sources of information, while only 22.1% had attended a health education programme on CVDs at their workplace. However, 78.7% expressed interest in attending future workshops or seminars on CVD prevention. While awareness of CVDs and their risk factors among academic staff was generally high, there were notable gaps in specific knowledge areas and preventive practices. Institutional health education interventions and workplace wellness programs are recommended to bridge these gaps and promote cardiovascular health.

In recent years, photoelectric devices have seen increasingly profound applications in critical fields such as display technologies, energy systems, and advanced manufacturing. Their technological advancement and performance optimization have become central driving forces in promoting the upgrading of related industries. Leveraging its prominent characteristics, such as high design flexibility, rapid prototyping capabilities, and customizable fabrication of complex structures, 3D printing technology demonstrates unique technical advantages in the field of optoelectronic device manufacturing. This paper systematically reviews the application progress of 3D printing technology in the field of photoelectric devices, including display devices, solar cells, and photodetectors. In addition, the specific application practice and technical breakthrough in the display core devices, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), are mainly described. In the future, 3D printing technology will play an important role in the field of optoelectronic devices. Specifically for core display components, it enables more efficient and cost-effective production, thereby driving advancements in display technology toward higher resolution and miniaturization. 3D printing will also bring breakthroughs in improving the efficiency of solar cells and the integration of photodetectors.

Objectives: Cancer care is changing rapidly, with many countries embracing organ-specific specialization to offer more focused and effective treatment. In India, however, most surgeons continue to practice in a more generalized way, and we still do not fully understand how they feel about shifting toward subspecialized care. This question becomes especially important in breast cancer—the most common cancer among Indian women—where dedicated expertise can make a real difference in early detection, treatment quality, and patient survival. This study aims to explore how Indian surgeons view breast organ-specific practice, their willingness to adopt it, and the challenges they foresee. Methods: Cross sectional study conducted in July 2024 in 100 surgeons of India using a self-administered google form questionnaire. Responses were evaluated and assessed. Results: Out of 100 responses, 45% were from private/corporate setting, 39% from government institutes. 30.6% were from west, 27.6% from east, 22.4% from south and 19.4% from north zone. 55% were from surgical oncology, 36.4% were from general surgery. As per the study, breast (31%) and gastro-intestinal surgery (29%) were the subspeciality of choice. 47.5% agreed that they would be interested in breast specific surgery practice if proper training was available. 30.9% considered this to be less stressful with fewer complications. Majority (48%) thought that lack of patient awareness about breast cancer specific surgeon was the biggest disadvantage of organ specific practice. 22% considered it to be technically undemanding. 51% and 27.1% suggested that a dedicated and recognized training is required and organ specific practices are required at hospitals/institutions respectively. Notably, female surgeons were more likely to choose breast surgery compared to males (50% vs. 20%), a difference that was statistically significant (p = 0.015; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.50–12.25) Conclusion: Breast organ specific oncosurgery practice is still uncommon in India. More dedicated training programs are required along with adequate employment opportunities to fill the lacunae in promoting the same.