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Measuring Cultural Distance With Cultural Classification Models: A Tutorial In R, Kongmeng Liew, Igor De Almeida

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Cross-cultural psychological research is essential to address the WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) bias in psychology. Traditional cross-cultural research often relies on Western-centric theories which may not adequately capture cultural differences beyond East-West comparisons. This tutorial introduces Cultural Classification Models (CCMs), interpretable machine learning models designed to explore cultural differences between countries by distinguishing between participants from different cultures on a cross-cultural dataset. CCMs offer a data-driven approach to quantify cultural distances and identify key variables that differentiate cultures. This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide in R to build CCMs using Random Forests, and derive indices of cultural …

Not Merely A Workaround: Theorizing Asynchronous Math Talks As A Robust Instructional Routine For Visible Thinking, Participation, And Engagement In Mathematics Teacher Education, Simon Byeonguk Han

Dissertations and Theses

The sudden global shift due to COVID-19 accelerated the need for a better understanding of mathematics learning and teaching in an asynchronous format. Also, despite the popular use of mathematics instructional routines in mathematics classrooms, the field of mathematics education research has very limited empirical studies on instructional routines. This dissertation addresses this by examining Asynchronous Math Talks (AMTs), a structured instructional routine adapted from Number Talks. The central goal of this research is to develop and theorize AMTs not merely as an online workaround, but as a robust instructional model that leverages the unique affordances of digital platforms to …

Owning The Mission: Reconciling The Past, While Implementing The Science Of Reading In An Education Preparation Program, Paula J. Adams

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This reflective inquiry examines the first year of a two-year initiative to more explicitly align an established educator preparation program with the Science of Reading (SoR). Situated within a small private university in New York State, the article considers implementation as both curricular revision and institutional change. The process included faculty professional learning, curriculum mapping, alignment of student learning outcomes, revision of common course assessments, development of SoR-aligned models of candidate work, and consideration of clinical experiences. Particular attention is given to tensions that emerged around policy fatigue, academic freedom and responsibility, differing professional cultures, candidates’ prior experiences with literacy …

My Negotiation Chatbot Toby And Pedagogical Governance, Renee Henson

Journal of Science & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Building On Sand: Ai Law And The Failures Of Alignment, Claire Boine

Journal of Science & Technology Law

AI alignment is increasingly in the spotlight. However, from a technical concept, the term has been broadened to cover all sorts of potential harms by advanced AI systems. This Article disambiguates three different problems: ensuring that systems pursue intended objectives through acceptable means, deciding which values should guide their behavior, and governing private companies whose incentives diverge from those of society. Drawing on technical research and documented incidents, the Article explains why goal alignment deserves serious attention without requiring claims about human-like intelligence. It then shows how value alignment can reframe normative conflict as an engineering problem and divert attention …

Suffering-Cessation As Value Function: The Tipiṭaka As A 2,500-Year-Tested Substrate For Autonomous-Ai Alignment — Deriving A Negatively-Stated Objective Function, Corrigibility And A Shutdown-Accepting Completion Condition From A Buddhist Scriptural Canon, Thon Ly

Defensive Publications Series

We describe the use of a scriptural canon with its living interpretive community, the Theravāda Buddhist Pāli canon (Tipiṭaka), as the value-specification source for aligning autonomous artificial-intelligence systems, instead of lab-authored constitutions, learned human preferences or aggregated moral frameworks. The analysis identifies seven structural properties of that source and maps each to an alignment problem: (1) a negatively-stated objective function, the cessation of suffering, in which grasping at preferred outcomes itself counts as harm, addressing Goodhart-style over-optimization; (2) a non-self doctrine as mitigation of convergent instrumental self-preservation; (3) a voluntary other-regarding vow as an anti-power-seeking and corrigibility property; (4) a …

The Referee, Not The Governor: Open-Weight Ai Guard Model Deployed As An Independent Evaluator, With Citation-Grounded Abstention And Reproducible Verdicts, Instead Of An Inline Filter, Thon Ly

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure specifies an AI safety classifier (guard or critic model) that judges conduct against a fixed reference corpus and is published as an open-weight independent evaluator rather than deployed as an inline guardrail filter. It states as a design principle, argued rather than measured, that open-weight release defeats a filter, because the published weights are an oracle for white-box attack, while it makes an evaluator's verdicts reproducible. Components: (1) citation-grounded judgment with abstention: every verdict must resolve to a passage (work, edition, volume, page, line) in an externally attested, versioned corpus, here a Pāli Canon edition, and otherwise no …

Psychometric Testing Of The Filipino Ppsc To Assess Patient Perceptions Of Hospital Safety Culture, Kathlyn Sharmaine Valdez, Andrew Sumpay

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

A reliable and valid tool that measures patient safety perception is essential in developing patient-centered safety initiatives, improving quality of care, and supporting sound organizational decision-making. The Patient Perception on Safety Culture in a Hospital Setting Scale (PPSC) is a newly developed instrument that assesses how hospitalized patients perceive safety culture (Valdez et al., 2023). This study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of the Tagalog translation of the PPSC.

This quantitative methodological research was conducted in three phases. Phase 1 involved the Tagalog translation of the tool by a professional linguist, followed by expert review to establish content validity. …

Roblox-Related Protest And Political Opposition In Indonesia: Game-Native Repertoires And Discursive Resistance, Ruth Stany Melisa

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

Digital games increasingly intersect with political communication as environments in which political grievances are reformulated through gaming cultures and vernaculars. This study examines Roblox-related protests associated with the Indonesia Gelap movement and the controversy surrounding the Indonesian Armed Forces Law (UU TNI) in March 2025. It asks how political opposition is constructed through game-native and symbolic repertoires and how these discourses invoke socially shared representations and relate to political power. Using a qualitative design, the study analyses six selected digital artefacts retrieved from X and TikTok. Visual and textual material constitute the primary data, while captured comments are …

Structural Injustice As Emergent Disorder, Hochan Kim

All Faculty Scholarship

Structural injustice remains a puzzling concept despite its increasing prominence. I distill recent theoretical challenges into a dilemma: either structural injustice lacks the normative credentials of injustice given that wrongdoing is inessential, or it is redundant given existing theories that trace injustice to culpable state and other institutional failures. I then develop a novel account of structural injustice, the Complexity View, that unravels this dilemma. The emergent properties of human actions in a complex society explain what is “structural” about structural injustice, specifically how it can arise without (culpable) wrongdoing. Structural injustice is unjust because it is wrong to contribute …

Business Writing Performance And Instructional Practices Under English Medium Instruction: A Multisite Mixed-Methods Study Of Diploma Students In Saudi Arabia, Shaykhah Saeed Raffaa

UB Journal for Humanities

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 treats English Medium Instruction (EMI) as a central instrument in vocational colleges, on the assumption that delivering content in English develops the professional literacies, business writing among them, that the labour market demands. This study examined business writing performance and the instructional practices associated with it among diploma students in Marketing and Business Administration at five Saudi public applied colleges, using a convergent mixed-methods design that combined a writing performance task (N = 130), a perceptions and affective-beliefs questionnaire (N = 130), semi-structured instructor interviews (N = 18), and structured classroom observations (N = 10). Because …

Automatic Discovery And Refinement Of Tool Catalogs From Conversational Data, Joshua Huang, Steve Yuan, Bryan Horling, Mahdi Zafarmand

Defensive Publications Series

Systems and methods are described for generating a tool catalog for conversational agents from historical conversation data, which can address challenges associated with manual catalog creation. The described technology can use a multi-stage process that may begin with a discovery engine, which could leverage a large language model, to analyze conversations and extract potential tools with their respective inputs and outputs. A subsequent refinement stage can employ a critic-actor architecture to iteratively identify and address potential logical issues in the extracted catalog, such as duplicate functions or unresolved parameter dependencies. This process can result in a dependency-aware tool catalog with …

Discourse Of Open Party Contestation In Jemaah Tarbiyah In Indonesia, Gili Argenti, Caroline Paskarina, Nani Darmayanti, Nandang Alamsah Deliarnoor

Jurnal Wacana Politik

Factionalization in Indonesian political parties is commonly explained by elite rivalry, coalition choices, or clientelistic interests, leaving intra-party conflict over the meaning of ideology less well explained. This article asks how the discourse of an open party constructs and reveals ideological contestation within Jemaah Tarbiyah and how that contestation contributed to the emergence of the Gelora Indonesia Party. Using Teun A. van Dijk's critical discourse analysis (CDA), the study integrates textual analysis, social cognition, and social context. The empirical material consists of in-depth interviews with 20 purposively selected actors from PKS, GARBI, Gelora, and related Tarbiyah networks, together with party …

Assessing Spanish-Speaking Latinas' Perceptions Of Postpartum Education On Maternal Warning Signs, Lucero Rocha-Dela Cruz, Natalia Villegas Rodriguez

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Introduction: Pregnancy-related deaths remain a significant public health concern in the US, with approximately 78% occuring during the postpartum period. Latinx birthing individuals may face increased risk of postpartum complications due to barriers in accessing postpartum education that is culturally and linguistically appropriate. Little is known about education on maternal warning signs received among Latinx birthing individuals in the postpartum period. Patient education can reduce pregnancy-related deaths associated with postpartum complications. The purpose of this study was to assess perceptions of postpartum education, with a focus on maternal warning signs, among Spanish-speaking Latinx birthing individuals.

Methods: This quantitative descriptive study …

The Ketupat War As A Cultural Performance: Ritual, Community Participation, And Cultural Preservation In Tempilang, Bangka Belitung, Fawarti Gendra Nata Utami, Budi Setiyono, Muhammad Fazli Taib Saearani

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

This study examines the Perang Ketupat tradition in Tempilang Village, Bangka Belitung Province, Indonesia, as a form of cultural performance. It aims to analyze the tradition through five dimensions: ritual, performing arts, community participation, cultural education, and community-based safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Employing a qualitative approach based on performance ethnography, data were collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews, document analysis, and a literature review during the 2024 Ketupat War Festival. The findings reveal that the tradition functions not only as a ritual for warding off misfortune but also as a living cultural performance that reinforces cultural identity, strengthens …

Effects Of Flipped Task-Based Learning On Grammatical Achievement And Learners’ Perceptions Among Pre-Service Efl Teachers, Phayao Nusen

Journal of Education Studies

This study aims 1) to compare the English grammatical achievement of students taught through flipped task-based learning and that of students taught through communicative language teaching, and   2) to examine learners’ perceptions of flipped task-based learning. The research employed a quasi-experimental design. The samples were 60 first-year undergraduates majoring in English Education at a public university, divided into an experimental group and a control group. The researcher assessed the students’ technological readiness and then divided them into the experimental group and the control group. There were 30 students in each group. The research instruments were 1) learning management plans, 2) …

Forecasting Trends In Educational Measurement And Assessment Topics In The Ai Era : Text Mining Analysis With Bayesian Multilevel Piecewise Regression Model, Siwachoat Srisuttiyakorn, Kanit Sriklaub, Yotsawee Saifah

Journal of Education Studies

This study aimed to 1) identify latent research topics in educational measurement and evaluation from academic databases covering the years 2008–2025 using Structural Topic Modeling (STM), 2) analyze topic prevalence trends and forecast their growth trajectories for 2027 using Bayesian Multilevel Piecewise Regression (BMPR), and 3) synthesize strategic research themes from the topic classification and forecasting results. The dataset consisted of 1,695 research articles from the proceedings of three international conferences. The data were processed to extract 10,858 standardized keywords and key phrases, which were then analyzed using STM to identify latent research topics. Topic labeling and interpretation were conducted …

How Far Do A Smile And A Hand Held Tight Reach? Children’S Play As A Transdisciplinary Predictor Of The Trajectory Of Physicochemical Processes On Atomic, Molecular And Cellular Scales, Evangelina Wu Uskoković, Theo Wu Uskoković, Vuk Uskoković

Administration and Staff Articles and Research

The search for an intrinsically beautiful scientific project took two children and their parent to over 600 visits of 181 playgrounds scattered throughout northern, central and southern California over the period of more than three years. Their goal was to test the hypothesis that children’s happiness and fondness for communication at playgrounds could be used, through complexity and entropy as intermediary quantities, as predictors of the evolution of physical, chemical and biological phenomena on microscopic scales ranging from the atomic to the cellular. Specifically, a link was sought between the children’s responses at play and the reaction paths of physicochemical …

Relationship Between Language, Culture, And Thinking Of The Kajang Community From The Perspective Of Anthropological Linguistics, Harlinah Sahib, Jumardin Muchtar, Herawati Abbas, Ferawaty Syam

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

In terms of anthropological linguistics, the study aims to explore the interaction of language, culture and cognitive tendencies in the community of Kajang. It particularly looks into the traditional oral expressions (kelong) of the community, including Kelong Basing Rikong, Lok-lok, and Ati-ati Raja, as their understandings of life, death, spirituality, and social values are expressed. A qualitative ethnolinguistic approach, informed by anthropological linguistics, was used in this study. Data collection methods included field observations, in-depth interviews with traditional leaders (Ammatoa), cultural practitioners and community elders, and a documentary analysis of oral texts, especially Kelong. …

“Whenever You Are Using Media, You Should Always Have A Purpose”: A Study Of Chinese Immigrant Mothers’ Media Practices, Xiaoning Gui, Daniel G. Krutka

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

This qualitative study explores how eleven Mandarin-speaking Chinese immigrant mothers of young children in a southwestern U.S. city navigate and mediate media in their households. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Findings show mothers balance media’s educational affordances with concerns about health and age-appropriate content, employing gatekeeping, time limits, and purposeful sharing. Mothers described children as learners, co-learners, and cultural connectors, sometimes reversing mediation by teaching mothers about U.S. media norms. Interpreted through a lens of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy while also drawing on Confucian concepts, results underscore the need for early childhood educators to honor immigrant families’ practices while fostering …

Syllabus: First Year Writing, Kylie Quave

Kylie Quave, First Year Writing: Food Archaeology for Civic Engagement

No abstract provided.

Regulating Religious Coexistence : The Intricacies Of Interfaith Cooperation In Coastal Kenya, Erik Meinema

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Regulating Religious Coexistence offers a compelling ethnographic analysis of how Muslims, Christians, and practitioners of indigenous African religions negotiate coexistence in Kenya’s coastal region. The book conceptualizes religious diversity as a dynamic field shaped by multiple partly intersecting and partly conflicting models of interaction. These include the political secularism promoted by the Kenyan state and civil society organizations focused on interfaith harmony, forms of competition between religious groups, and pluralistic practices in which individuals draw on multiple traditions to meet spiritual needs.

Through a close examination of civil society initiatives funded by Western donors to foster peacebuilding and to counter …

Visualizing Borneo Biodiversity And Dayak Cultural Heritage Through Contemporary Innovative Batik Motifs, Kristanti Kristanti

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

Borneo combines exceptional biological diversity with cultural traditions that shape regional identity. This study aims to develop contemporary batik motifs based on selected biological references associated with Borneo and one Dayak cultural reference while documenting the visual transformation process as research knowledge. A practice-based research approach was employed through exploration, design development, realization, expert validation, and revision. The initial exploration included the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus), rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros), black orchid (Coelogyne pandurata), ironwood (Eusideroxylon zwageri), and pitcher plants (Nepenthes spp.), while the Dayak …

“Transnational Literature” And “Transgression” In Literature, Shihua Chen, Buwen Wei

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As a genre of literature, “transnational literature” has begun to attract global attention since the 1990s. Narrowly defined, “transnational literature” refers to works created by “transnational writers” in a non-native language. In a broader sense, it encompasses works produced by “transnational writers” that draw on their own experiences of “transgression”, exhibiting distinct “transgressivity” shaped by unique contexts of creation. This characteristic is reflected in the two aspects of “linguistic transgression” and “cultural transgression”. “Linguistic transgression” not only encompasses the fundamental form of creating works entirely in a non-native language, but also involves various forms such as mixing different languages within …

An Analysis Of Denotation And Connotation: Contribution Of Lu Xun's Old Stories Retold, Qinghua Cao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Existing research on Lu Xun's Old Stories Retold has mainly focused on two aspects: what is written and how it is written. Little attention has been paid to the analysis of the denotation and connotation of linguistic representation, which is the medium of narrative, in Lu Xun's writing in Old Stories Retold. “Gathering Ferns” portrays Boyi and Shuqi as two “stupid ox” figures who believe in and practice the denotative meanings of ancient Chinese books, and are thus caught in a double dilemma of language and body. Old Stories Retold also seeks to reveal the formalized features of the …

Semantic Shields: Automating Critical Infrastructure Defense Via Nlp-Driven Ransomware Profiling, Henry Trowbridge, Ian Zalcberg, Ryan Schley, Carter Yagemann, Natasha Phan, Srikar Maduposu, Vimal Buck

Military Cyber Affairs

Ransomware poses a growing threat to critical infrastructure, where successful attacks can disrupt operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS) with significant public safety consequences. However, attributing ransomware incidents to specific threat actors remains challenging due to ransomware-as-a-service ecosystems, actor rebranding, and the obfuscation of traditional indicators of compromise. This paper presents Semantic Shields, an NLP-driven attribution framework that leverages BERT-generated semantic embeddings and DBSCAN clustering to profile ransomware actors through the linguistic characteristics of ransom notes. Using a dataset of 295 ransom notes from 189 distinct threat groups, the framework achieved an 87.2% true positive clustering rate and …

From Static Frameworks To Adaptive Evaluation: Piloting An Ai-Powered Evaluation Planner For Media Literacy And Digital Skills Interventions, Natalia Edisherashvili, Marit Puusepp, Leen D'Haenens, Tania Azadi, Łukasz Tomczyk, Gemma Martinez Fernández, Miguel Ángel Casado Del Río, Diego Martinez-Castro

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

Evaluating media literacy and digital skills (ML&DS) interventions remains challenging due to limited methodological capacity, time, and resources. Existing frameworks offer valuable guidance but are static and require expert adaptation. This pilot study tested an AI-powered Evaluation Planner developed within the REMEDIS project to support practitioners in designing feasible, evidence-informed evaluation plans. Using a mixed-methods design, 56 participants from 12 countries assessed the tool’s usability, clarity, and perceived utility after completing the Planner and an online survey. Findings showed high perceived ease of use, cognitive clarity, utility, and multilingual functionality. Associations between clarity, ease of use, and intention to reuse …

Disney And Critical Global Citizenship: Border Politics And Linguistic Decolonization In The Lion Guard, Gordana Lazić

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

In this essay, I analyze the Disney television series The Lion Guard as a site of public pedagogy and argue that the show fosters a form of critical global citizenship among young viewers. It does this, I further maintain, in two primary ways: the progressive treatment of and careful attention to immigration and border politics, and disruption of the hegemony of the English language. Through age-appropriate plot development and dialogue, The Lion Guard actively participates in public pedagogy urging future policy and decision-makers to develop critical global consciousness.

Sub-Saharan African Women’S Experiences Of Social Support During Childbirth In Finland, Emma Kwegyir-Afful, Anita Wikberg

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Over 50% of the estimated 90 million international migrants in Europe are women, many of whom are of childbearing age (Fair et al., 2020). Poorer pregnancy and birth outcomes are common among ethnic minority women (Soltani et al., 2020). In Finland Sub-Saharan African women (SSAW) are more likely to undergo caesarean section than Finnish women (Bastola et al., 2020).

Social support which is both informational (providing information for problem-solving) and emotional (offering care and/or trust) is key social determinant of health. It can be acquired through informal networks such as friends, family, and ethnic communities or through formal networks …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Challenges Related To Science Vocabulary Instruction In Wyoming Elementary Schools, Alexis Barney

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Science vocabulary supports conceptual understanding, engagement in scientific discourse, and achievement across content areas. The problem addressed in this study was Wyoming’s low literacy and science performance, as indicated by standardized and national test scores, highlighting the critical need for improved vocabulary instruction to close gaps in content-specific terminology that hindered elementary students’ understanding and achievement. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore Wyoming elementary science teachers’ perceptions of challenges, instructional strategies, and recommendations for improving science vocabulary instruction. Guided by Vygotsky’s (1978) constructivist theory and the concept of the zone of proximal development, the study included …