Unique Viewpoint Research Articles

Life Post-SSEAYP: Delving the Concept of “SSEAYP Sick” among Former Participating Youth from the Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Program

The Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Programme (SSEAYP) has been running for 46 years. The Cabinet Office of Japan organises it. This programme aims to foster friendship and mutual understanding between Japanese and Southeast Asian youths. After the Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Program (SSEAYP) programme ends, all the former Participating Youths (PYs) will experience a new life adjustment, which is famously known as "SSEAYP Sick". Therefore, this study explores the implications of "SSEAYP Sick" among Former Participating Youths who participated in this program. Additionally, it is crucial to investigate how the SSEAYP programme has affected the PYs.The phenomenological approach is used in this qualitative research technique to comprehend how the PYs feel about a specific phenomenon. Twenty-two informants from ASEAN and Japan were interviewed in-depth to get the data. Thematic transcription was done after a descriptive analysis of the interview material. The study discovered that the PYs viewed this programme as a "bonus" regarding the SSEAYP Sick phenomena. This study's implications have identified three critical causes for the life post-SSEAYP among PYs: culture shock, homesickness, and the intricate process of returning adaptation. In addition, every person possesses unique experiences, thoughts, and viewpoints that have aided their development and moulded them into the people they are today. Keywords: Japan, SSEAYP sick, phenomenology, Southeast Asian, youth.

Lived Experiences of Suicide-Bereaved Siblings in Pakistan: A Qualitative Approach

The perspective of siblings who are suicide-bereaved in Pakistan denote a rather underexplored but significant part of mental wellbeing. This qualitative research reconnoiters the feeling of people whose siblings have been lost in the event of a suicide while also aiming to bring light to the different facets of the grieving journey that they have navigated through. Using techniques of thematic analysis, data was collected using semi-structured interviews involving 8 participants who were siblings and belonging to a wide range of backgrounds, each of them offering a different and unique viewpoint that was shaped by their experiences and backgrounds. The analysis discovered seven predominant themes, each of which contained several subthemes. From these, a universal and main aspect of the bereavement process was emotional distress which was interlinked with coping mechanisms and resilience portrayed by siblings while undergoing that journey of grief. Furthermore, posttraumatic growth as a phenomenon came forth as an intricate interconnection of transformation of the individual due to huge loss. The research also revealed the extensive effect of stigmatization in Pakistani society regarding suicide. Nevertheless, the significance of Environmental Reward, complexities of stressed relationships and social support dynamics came forth as important features that shaped the experience of bereavement. The discoveries highlight the need for specialized interventions and support services that cater to individualized needs of individuals in Pakistan who are suicide bereaved. By identifying and authenticating their experiences, officials involved in making policies and mental health professionals can nurture a more effective and sympathetic method for helping those who are currently experiencing loss of a sibling due to suicide. This research contributes important discernments to the increasing literature on the topic of bereavement and emphasizes the importance of cultural bound and contextual helping strategies for catering mental health problems in Pakistan.

Navigating the vestibular maze: text-mining analysis of publication trends over five decades.

The field of vestibular science, encompassing the study of the vestibular system and associated disorders, has experienced notable growth and evolving trends over the past five decades. Here, we explore the changing landscape in vestibular science, focusing on epidemiology, peripheral pathologies, diagnosis methods, treatment, and technological advancements. Publication data was obtained from the US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) PubMed database. The analysis included epidemiological, etiological, diagnostic, and treatment-focused studies on peripheral vestibular disorders, with a particular emphasis on changes in topics and trends of publications over time. Our dataset of 39,238 publications revealed a rising trend in research across all age groups. Etiologically, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and Meniere's disease were the most researched conditions, but the prevalence of studies on vestibular migraine showed a marked increase in recent years. Electronystagmography (ENG)/ Videonystagmography (VNG) and Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential (VEMP) were the most commonly discussed diagnostic tools, while physiotherapy stood out as the primary treatment modality. Our study presents a unique opportunity and point of view, exploring the evolving landscape of vestibular science publications over the past five decades. The analysis underscored the dynamic nature of the field, highlighting shifts in focus and emerging publication trends in diagnosis and treatment over time.

Critically Discuss Some of The Ways in Which Feminist Epistemology Offers a Challenge to Certain Traditional Philosophical Approaches to Knowledge. What Might Be the Educational Implications of These Challenges?

This essay mainly depicts how feminist epistemology challenges the traditional epistemology in three aspects, which are feminist standpoint, feminist postmodernism, and feminist empiricism (Anderson,2000). The feminist standpoint represents views of women, and the knowledge of women are epistemically advantageous than those of men in many spheres of life, because women in subordinated or suppressed positions for centuries can acquire some unique viewpoints that men ignore. Therefore, women's ideas are worthy of recognition and respect, and women should be encouraged to share their thoughts and knowledge. The feminist postmodernism emphasizes that the society needs to devote much attention to the voice of women from minority, low-salary group, low social class. This theory reveals that feminist epistemologists not only strive for privileged women’s rights but also fights for the rights of minority, financially disadvantageous women. The feminist empiricism emphasizes that women’s experience as the reliable knowledge contributes to the society (Anderson,2000). However, these three above-mentioned theories challenge certain traditional philosophical approaches to knowledge, and this essay will show how this occurs. Besides, this essay will show some educational implications of these challenges.

Applying Carspecken’s critical ethnography method to uncover the culture of health disparity in intensive care units

Background & Aim: Carspecken’s critical ethnography method has gained prominence in nursing research, necessitating a fresh perspective on its practicality and advantages. This study aims to provide a unique viewpoint on using critical ethnography as a foundational methodology to uncover health disparity culture in intensive care units.
 Methods & Materials: While emphasizing its review design with original examples, this perspective piece provides a practical explanation of Carspecken’s five-stage critical ethnography approach. Grounded in the ontological and epistemological paradigm, this essay examines critical ethnography as a crucial approach to illuminating the discursive culture surrounding health disparities. Also, this study presents original instances of monological and dialogical data, reconstructive analysis, and findings from a study that was carried out to provide more perspective on implementation. It also mentions how it relates the findings to social factors and sociopolitical theories.
 Results: The study reveals nuanced insights into the practicality and advantages of Carspecken’s method, shedding light on social processes contributing to health disparities in intensive care units. This method allowed us to identify how external powers extend to the intensive care unit, revealing a concealed culture that disrupts service provision balance. It exposed individual, organizational, and systemic roots contributing to disparities. Additionally, it highlighted how individual diversities can lead to disparity.
 Conclusion: This study highlights the significance of Carspecken’s critical ethnography in nursing studies within the critical theory tradition. It is argued that Carspecken’s approach to critical ethnography is particularly instrumental in elucidating the social structures contributing to health disparities.

Evaluasi penerapan konsep forest city dalam pembangunan lokasi calon ibu kota negara Indonesia penerapan pembangunan berkelanjutan

Jakarta being the nation’s capital, has led to significant environmental stress due to population density. The rise in inhabitants corresponds with the demand for residential land, urban infrastructure, and other auxiliary structures. The Indonesian government proposes the relocation of the State Capital as a remedy to address the issues and loads present in Jakarta and, more extensively, on Java Island. The fair allocation of funds for infrastructure development to boost economic growth outside Java Island is targeted at suitable locations, specifically in the North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara Regencies. The forest city concept is a strategy in urban planning and development that integrates with nature to safeguard forest regions and biodiversity. Striving for sustainable development necessitates consideration of social, economic, and environmental aspects in the urbanization process on Kalimantan Island. Urbanization issues to general environmental paradigms often arise in several regions, offering a unique viewpoint on the implementation of urban forests at the State Capital candidate location. The shift of service and government hubs is accompanied by population redistribution, with an estimated 1.5 million individuals expected to inhabit the proposed area. Social and environmental conflicts are prevalent issues of concern in the establishment of new cities. The objective of the evaluation is conducted through an analysis of the potential and challenges that will be encountered in relocating the State Capital from the socio-cultural aspect concerning cultural assimilation and environmental aspects related to the urban environment, which can induce an urban heat island. This research employs a descriptive qualitative approach and method to identify potential and problems developed by the necessary strategies through SWOT analysis. The findings of this research offer recommendations that the government, as the decision-maker, must implement to preserve and sustain the potential of the environment and socio-cultural diversity.

ARIMA Model, Discounted Cash Flow Analysis, and Dividend Discount Model for Five Technology Stocks' Pricing and Trading Strategy

This study examines the ability of three widely used financial and econometric models-the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF), and the Dividend Discount Model (DDM), to accurately forecast the stock prices of five well-known technological companies. Every theoretical framework offers a unique point of view. DDM places an emphasis on the value of expected future dividends. Collecting historical information on each stock and then applying that information to the relevant models in order to make projections about future stock values was an integral part of the process. In order to evaluate the accuracy, dependability, and applicability of each model in regard to the technology equity, a head-to-head comparison was carried out. Based on the preliminary findings, it appears that while ARIMA can provide valuable insights for price changes in the short term, DCF and DDM can provide a more comprehensive view of the long-term intrinsic worth of a company's stock. However, the effectiveness of each model differed among the several technological stocks that were considered, underscoring the relevance of selecting a model that is adapted to the particular qualities and dynamics of a specific stock as well as the industry in which it operates.

Provable Unrestricted Adversarial Training without Compromise with Generalizability.

Adversarial training (AT) is widely considered as the most promising strategy to defend against adversarial attacks and has drawn increasing interest from researchers. However, the existing AT methods still suffer from two challenges. First, they are unable to handle unrestricted adversarial examples (UAEs), which are built from scratch, as opposed to restricted adversarial examples (RAEs), which are created by adding perturbations bound by an lp norm to observed examples. Second, the existing AT methods often achieve adversarial robustness at the expense of standard generalizability (i.e., the accuracy on natural examples) because they make a tradeoff between them. To overcome these challenges, we propose a unique viewpoint that understands UAEs as imperceptibly perturbed unobserved examples. Also, we find that the tradeoff results from the separation of the distributions of adversarial examples and natural examples. Based on these ideas, we propose a novel AT approach called Provable Unrestricted Adversarial Training (PUAT), which can provide a target classifier with comprehensive adversarial robustness against both UAE and RAE, and simultaneously improve its standard generalizability. Particularly, PUAT utilizes partially labeled data to achieve effective UAE generation by accurately capturing the natural data distribution through a novel augmented triple-GAN. At the same time, PUAT extends the traditional AT by introducing the supervised loss of the target classifier into the adversarial loss and achieves the alignment between the UAE distribution, the natural data distribution, and the distribution learned by the classifier, with the collaboration of the augmented triple-GAN. Finally, the solid theoretical analysis and extensive experiments conducted on widely-used benchmarks demonstrate the superiority of PUAT.

Analizando la Vacuidad y Sustancia Literaria: Una Perspectiva Informada por la Filosofía Neoconfuciana de Tang Junyi

Abstract: The objective of this study is to thoroughly analyze and interpret Tang Junyi’s ideas about emptiness and substance in literature and art in a systematic manner. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of Tang Junyi’s viewpoints, we initially employed the “close reading method” to carefully examine all of his works. Additionally, we utilized the “conceptual analysis method” to focus on identifying and explaining key concepts in his literary ideas. At the same time, we compared Tang Junyi’s ideas with other scholars’ research findings, using the “literature comparison method”. After conducting a thorough examination, the author concludes that Tang Junyi’s perspective on emptiness and substance in literature and art is not an independent intellectual construct, but rather a unique viewpoint formed within the backdrop of traditional Chinese culture and philosophy. This concept is central to his literary theory and serves as a prominent element within his philosophical framework. By exploring the realm of “emptiness and substance” within Tang Junyi’s literary ideas, we can gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for his impact on literature and philosophy. This exploration also presents fresh perspectives and conceptual structures for the examination of Chinese literary theory and culture.

Konseptualisasi Cara Pandang Islamisasi Bahasa

Similar terms are frequently heard in several languages, yet every language has its unique viewpoint. As a result, conceptual and semantic shifts within a language are frequent. Nevertheless, problems occur when these modifications are made to important Islamic jargon. It is well recognized that Islam and Arabic are closely related. The Qur'anic text is written in Arabic, which offers a strong basis for the language's semantic perpetuity. The purpose of this study is to investigate how stable the Arabic-Islamic language is and how meaning changes affect important terms in Islam. The research method used is library research, with data collection techniques involving the examination of books as primary sources and journals and articles related to the research topic as secondary sources. The results of the study suggest that certain languages that share terminology with important terms in Islam but have different meanings should be Islamized. The goal of language Islamization is to adapt Western viewpoints of a language to those of Islam, particularly with regard to upholding Islamic ideas. Although Arabic and other languages share many phrases, it is imperative to maintain the Islamic ideals and continuity of meaning in the vocabulary used.

L’image de l’Arabe dans la Série Netflix Messiah : analyse dialogique

The Image of The Arab in Netflix Series Messiah: Dialogical analysis
 This study falls within the purview of discourse analysis and seeks to propose nuanced interpretations regarding the portrayal of Arabs in Hollywood cinema. Initially characterized by negative stereotypes, this image undergoes a partial rehabilitation in the Netflix series Messiah. The investigation aims to scrutinize both representations by analyzing specific sequences from the series, which premiered on the Netflix platform on January 1, 2020. The series revolves around the return of the Messiah, linked to eschatology, portraying him as a savior in conflict zones addressing desperate people in Arabic, notably in Syria, West Bank, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The doctrinal theme of the Messiah's return sparks significant impact in spirituality and theology, eliciting diverse discussions and interpretations. Employing a qualitative approach rooted in the principles of nominational dialogism, this study identifies stereotypical representations often ingrained in Hollywood's conventional beliefs. It achieves this by scrutinizing parameters of categorization and enunciation in interactions involving Arab characters such as Jibril Hassan, Samer, Sheikh Zaid, the Imam, and others.The study results shed light on two contrasting images of Arabs. Firstly, Sheikh Zaid embodies the stereotype of an extremist and violent Arab, perpetuating long- standing clichés. Secondly, Jibril Hassan represents the image of a vulnerable and easily manipulable Arab, adding a layer of complexity to the overall representation. By delving into these subtleties, this research seeks to challenge and transcend the conventional depictions of Arabs in Hollywood cinema. Its objective is to foster a deeper understanding of the intricacies associated with these characters, moving beyond the limiting and one-dimensional portrayals often disseminated by mainstream media. The ultimate aspiration is to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing dialogue regarding the representation of diverse cultures and identities in popular entertainment, such as Hollywood, which wields significant influence over public perceptions. Drawing on Jullien's perspective on alterity, the study advocates understanding others through their unique viewpoints rather than imposing our own. Applied to Hollywood's portrayal of Arabs, this approach encourages a shift beyond stereotypes toward a nuanced appreciation of Arab identity and cultural richness. Such an approach promotes deeper cultural empathy and challenges prevailing, simplistic narratives in global cinema and media.

Red-pilled mama bears and enlightened power goddesses: Discursive constructions of feminine identities in a conspiracy theory space.

Previous research into the gendered social identity work involved in conspiracy theories (CTs) has largely focused on expressions of masculinity. The present study investigates the employment and mobilization of feminine identities in online Covid-19 conspiracy theory seminars through a critical discursive psychological perspective. The analysis finds three interpretative repertoires for representing the pandemic: the totalitarianism repertoire, the corrupt medical profession repertoire and the awakening repertoire. The most prominent feminine subject position constructed in relation to these repertoires is a maternal identity that functions as a category entitlement: mothers are represented as having a unique viewpoint on the purported pandemic conspiracy by virtue of their supposed inherent morality and concern for the welfare of children. Mothers are depicted as the cultural reproducers of the group, tasked with keeping the(ir) children safe from the influence of the conspiracy. Moreover, women are persuaded to take part in anti-conspiracy action by drawing on notions of empowerment, self-actualization, and sisterhood. These findings suggest that feminine identities, and maternal identities in particular, play a key role in the mobilizing power of CTs.

The “Grand Tour” of the Communist: Wilhelm Mach’s Queer Travel Writing*

The articles addresses three problems referring to Wilhelm Mach’s travelogues: first of all, the relation between the act of writing and the quest for the truth of the self; secondly, the pivotal role of intimate memory and experience in the understanding of transnational political movements and in the third place, the unique point of view of a queer person who dissent from the dominant stereotypes and epistemic habits. Mach answers to all those questions in a very specific and unique manner – he disrupts the structure of the narrative, giving way to different techniques of registration and notation. Thus he pushes his travel writing in the liminal area of creative non-fiction which is a fascinating reaction to the oppressive rules of realism posed to the artists by communist regime. Mach’s travelogues about India and Bulgaria are discussed here in particular because they are an example of the writer’s personal ‘Grand Tour’ although it is a ‘Grand Tour’ organized under the constrictions of a totalitarian regime and experienced by a Marxist. Those historical and philosophical circumstances determine the peculiar image of both India and Bulgaria created by Mach. Under the political correctness required by the Stalinist censorship Mach’s texts are subversive and non-canonical.

Editorial. The hard, but rewarding, work of collaborating across sectors - dance in cross-sectoral educational collaborations

This special issue is motivated by a firm belief that cross-sectoral educational collaborations are needed and have value. In response to the recognised gap in research addressing the possibilities and challenges inherent in cross-sectoral educational collaborations, we initiated this special issue. We invited research contributions focusing on dance within cross-sectoral educational collaborations, encompassing schools, teacher education institutions, and other formal or informal educational institutions as the contextual backdrop. As we initiated the special issue, we pondered around a myriad of questions: how do teachers, teacher educators, and/or teacher candidates organise, develop, implement, and carry out collaborations with external choreographers, professional dancers, and/or dance teachers? How do collaborative planning, pre-workshops among participants, or other preparatory actions before the actual school, teacher education, or other educational institution practice support transformational mutuality? How and why do obstacles, friction, and tension arise, and how are they solved in dance in cross-sectoral educational collaborations? Furthermore, how might dance in cross-sectoral educational collaborations critically challenge stereotypical views on knowledge or uneven power distribution among participants in different positions in cross-sectoral collaborations? How do collaborations with other arts fields influence, support, or complicate dance in cross-sectoral educational collaborations? Additionally, we contemplated the integration of dance and technology in cross-sectoral educational collaborations and how these two domains can complement each other. The eight peer-reviewed articles included in the special issue touch on and contribute knowledge in response to these, and more, questions. We warmly invite readers to actively immerse themselves in these articles, as each presents a unique viewpoint and profound insights into the complex landscape of dance in cross-sectoral educational collaborations. In doing so, we hope to ignite a passion for this important topic, inspiring transformative and collaborative approaches to dance education.

Enhanced plasticity in a Zr-rich refractory high-entropy alloy via electron irradiation

Refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) possess remarkable high-temperature mechanical properties and have significant potential for use in nuclear fission reactors. However, the phase stabilities of RHEAs are relatively poor in the intermediate temperature range. The coarsening of the nanoprecipitates weakens the plasticity of RHEAs, which imposes substantial restrictions on their scope of application. In this study, electron irradiation was employed to address the challenges associated with nanoprecipitate coarsening and discontinuous precipitation in Zr35Ti30Nb20Al10Ta5 RHEAs after intermediate-temperature annealing. Electron irradiation caused the B2 nanoprecipitates to dissolve, re-precipitate, and induce the precipitation of omega nanoprecipitates. Compared with the unirradiated Zr35Ti30Nb20Al10Ta5 RHEAs with poor plasticity (fracture before yielding), the elongation of irradiated Zr35Ti30Nb20Al10Ta5 RHEAs reaches up to 10 %. This study provides a unique viewpoint and pioneering methodology to effectively tackle the challenge of inadequate plasticity in RHEAs.

Are Pediatric Trauma Transfers Justified?: A Unique Viewpoint From a Transferring Institution.

Definitions of pediatric overtriage and unnecessary transfers for injured children have been instituted from a viewpoint of referral centers and have doubtful value for effecting interventions at referring centers. This study provides a unique insight into the factors prompting transfers at a peripheral institution. The trauma registry of a level 2 pediatric trauma center was accessed, and pediatric transfers out to 2 level 1 pediatric trauma centers were identified over a period of 4 years. The outcomes of these patients at the accepting institutions were charted for descriptive analysis. The study identified 46 patients transferred out with a transfer rate of 6.6% when compared with total admissions. The mean Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 6.5, and the mean length of stay (LOS) at the receiving institution was 2.8 days. The reason for transfer from a specialty standpoint revealed 21 neurosurgical, 12 burn, 6 orthopedic, 4 faciomaxillary, and 2 ophthalmology patients. Overall transfer rate was 6.6%. Pediatric overtriage when defined as LOS < 24 hours at the receiving institution was 46.7%. Fifty percent of pediatric overtriage was prompted by need for a pediatric neurosurgery consult with medicolegal concern being cited as reason for transfer. Secondary overtriage when defined as LOS < 24 hours, no pediatric intensive care admission, no surgical intervention, and ISS < 9 was found in 13 patients (30.9%). The proportion of patients with Medicaid insurance was not different for the admissions (43.5%) when compared with the transfers (42.7%). Existing definitions of overtriage have limited value in effecting interventions to reduce unnecessary transfers. Identifying specific factors at referring institutions including providing local availability of pediatric surgical specialists will potentially help mitigate injury-related pediatric overtriage.

Bayberry-like bimetallic CoNi-MOF-74 derivatives/MXene hybrids with abundant heterointerfaces toward high-efficiency electromagnetic wave absorption

The flourishing development of electronic devices and radar detection technologies necessitates the urgent creation of high-efficiency electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption materials with expansive absorption bandwidths. Although MXene has garnered significant interest in the domain of EMW absorption due to its tunable dielectric properties and structural designability, its high permittivity often results in poor impedance matching and a single loss mechanism, which makes it difficult to realize optimal EMW absorption capabilities. In this work, CoNi bimetallic metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) derived bayberry-like magnetic porous carbon (CoNiMPC)@carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/MXene (CNCM) hybrids were initially synthesized via simple solution precipitation, thermal treatment, and electrostatic self-assembly strategy. As anticipated, excellent EMW absorption characteristics were achieved by adjusting the ratio of CoNiMPC@CNTs and MXene. Multi-heterointerfaces consisting of zero-dimensional porous carbon, one-dimensional carbon nanotubes, and two-dimensional (2D) MXene, electrical/magnetic coupling effects, and polarization loss induced by abundant heterointerfaces endow the prepared CNCM hybrids with high-performance EMW absorption. Notably, the CNCM-7 hybrid material exhibits a minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of − 65.3 dB at 6.8 GHz with a mere 2.7 mm thickness and an effective absorption bandwidth (EAB, RL < −10 dB) of 5.0 GHz at a thickness of 1.27 mm. This study proposes a unique viewpoint and approach towards the design and preparing high-performance MXene-based EMW absorption materials.

A Sustainable Future for Food Tourism: Promoting the Territory through Cooking Classes

Food tourism is becoming more popular because of the growing interest of people in organic products and achieving healthier habits. This paper aims to analyze the potential of cooking classes for the planning and development of a sustainable future for food tourism. The research is based on six interviews with providers of cooking classes and six interviews with food tourists in the region of Catalonia. Results show that cooking classes contribute to the process of awarding tourism value to local products and recipes, creating and authentic and educational experience. This engages producers and consumers in a sustainable, and regenerative experience, that appreciates local people, places and practices. Cooking classes are activities that can create a tourism attraction factor, and consequently, allow locals and visitors to know the culture of the country they visit from a unique point of view, which this paper analyses from both perspectives.

NOVAction23: Addressing the data diversity gap by uniquely generated synthetic sequences for real-world human action recognition

Recognition of human actions using machine learning requires extensive datasets to develop robust models. Nevertheless, obtaining real-world data presents challenges due to the costly and time-consuming process involved. Additionally, existing datasets mostly contain indoor videos due to the challenges of capturing pose data outdoors. Synthetic data have been used to overcome these difficulties, yet the currently available synthetic datasets for human action recognition lack photorealism and diversity in their features. Addressing these shortcomings, we develop the NOVAction engine to generate highly diversified and photorealistic synthetic human action sequences. We use NOVAction to create the NOVAction23 dataset comprising 25,415 human action sequences with corresponding poses and labels (available at https://github.com/celikcan-cglab/NOVAction23). In NOVAction23, the performed motions and viewpoints are varied on the fly through procedural generation, to ensure that, for a given action class, each generated sequence features a distinct motion performed by one of the 1,105 synthetic humans captured from a unique viewpoint. Moreover, each synthetic human is unique in terms of body shape (height and weight), skin tone, gender, hair, facial hair, clothing, shoes and accessories. To further increase data diversity, the motion sequences are rendered under various weather conditions and at different times of day, across three outdoor and two indoor settings. We evaluate NOVAction23 by training three state-of-the-art recognizers on it, in addition to the NTU 120 dataset, and corroborating using real-world videos from YouTube. Our results confirm that the NOVAction23 dataset can improve the performance of state-of-the-art human action recognition.

Children and overtourism: a cognitive neuroscience experiment to reflect on exposure and behavioural consequences

As tourism research has paid limited attention to children, this study investigates children’s reactions to tourism development, focusing on their unique viewpoints on the World Heritage Site of Dubrovnik, Croatia. It employed cognitive neuroscience methods with 397 participants, revealing that, despite their preference for sustainable tourism scenarios, children exhibit a notable fixation on images emblematic of overtourism and associated challenges, particularly overcrowding. When exposed to sustainable tourism photographs, there was an observable increase in physiological arousal, albeit not as pronounced as when confronted with an overtourism scenario. Intriguingly, regardless of the scenario, children predominantly expressed neutral emotions. Within the sustainable tourism context, gender differences manifest as girls exhibiting lower levels of place attachment. Furthermore, inner-city residents exhibit diminished levels of nature connectedness, and emotions are indirectly linked to nature connectedness, place attachment, or pro-environmental behaviour. Conversely, in the unsustainable scenario, older children and inner-city residents exhibited a heightened sense of neutrality towards overtourism-related concerns, whereas those outside the inner city displayed a stronger affinity for nature connectedness. Positive emotions were negatively associated with nature connectedness and pro-environmental behaviour but positively associated with place attachment. Accordingly, this study advocates a more inclusive and sustainable future through children’s empowerment in tourism development.