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Talent identification and development strategies in elite women's soccer:a pan-European perspective
Full text linkThe question of how best to identify and develop youth soccer players has received considerable attention from the scientific community. Existing literature has, however, largely focused on male players, with comparatively little exploration of the specific approaches employed within women’s soccer. Accordingly, we sought to investigate the key factors deemed important by elite women’s soccer clubs concerning the: 1) identification of potential talent; 2) development of players within the player pathway; and 3) selection of players for the next age group or senior team. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews with 11 key representatives from seven elite women’s soccer clubs. Clubs were purposefully sampled to include the highest performing teams (38 domestic titles and 10 UEFA Women’s Champions League titles) from five European nations (Spain, France, Sweden, Germany, and Italy). Data were analysed using thematic content analysis, resulting in six higher-order themes: 1) prioritising local talent; 2) recruitment from mixed grassroots leagues; 3) creating challenging developmental environments; 4) ensuring player wellbeing; 5) patience in decision-making; and 6) facilitating the youth-to-senior transition through a top-down approach. A total of 17 lower-order themes were subsequently identified. The present study offers novel insights of key strategies deemed important by some of the most successful women’s clubs in top-performing European nations. Future research examining the efficacy of such approaches could help inform the development of evidence-based practices for nurturing the next generation of elite female players
Influence of exercise training on nitric oxide pathways and their physiological effects
Full text linkNitric oxide (NO) is a critical signalling molecule in cardiovascular, metabolic, and muscular function. Endogenous NO production occurs via two primary metabolic pathways: 1) the classical nitric oxide synthases (NOS) pathway, and 2) the alternative (nitrate–nitrite–NO) pathway, in which inorganic nitrate (NO3-) is sequentially reduced to nitrite (NO2-) and other NO intermediates (e.g., S-nitrosothiol). The latter pathway relies heavily on the oral microbiota, which catalyze the two-electron partial reduction of NO3- to NO2-, which is influenced by oral physiology, microbial composition and salivary flow. While the role of exercise training in enhancing NOS-derived NO is well established, emerging evidence suggests that it may also augment NO bioavailability through the NO₃⁻–NO₂⁻–NO pathway. Furthermore, exercise training may influence the composition and functionality of oral microbiota, thereby indirectly modulating NO metabolism and oral health. However, the synergistic effects of exercise and oral microbiota on NO production remain underexplored. This review synthesises current evidence on how physical exercise may modulate both NO pathways and discusses the broader physiological implications
An emission-capacitated vehicle routing model for sustainable urban waste collection using hybrid guided local search
Full text linkUrban logistics services, such as municipal solid waste collection, play a crucial role in shaping cities' sustainability. These services are significant contributors to fuel consumption, operational costs, and greenhouse gas emissions. Traditional vehicle routing models, such as the capacitated vehicle routing problem with time windows, typically focus on minimizing distance or cost, which indirectly impacts emissions. However, these models fail to address the growing need for sustainable and environmentally conscious logistics strategies. This study introduces the emission-capacitated vehicle routing problem with time windows (E-CVRPTW), a novel optimization formulation that explicitly integrates a load-dependent fuel consumption model and an emission objective. The formulation also incorporates fleet-level policy constraints, including a carbon budget and an emission-intensity ceiling, providing a more comprehensive approach to minimizing both operational costs and environmental impacts. To solve the E-CVRPTW, a hybrid guided local search (HGLS) approach is employed with additional embedded features: (i) a novel cheapest insertion first initialization to generate high-quality starting solutions; (ii) adaptive feature penalties to diversify the search, while controlled neighborhood switching between 2-opt and 3-opt moves ensures an optimal balance between intensification and diversification. These features help the proposed algorithm to achieve better optimization solutions. Moreover, a rigorous experimental protocol using the Solomon and Gehring-Homberger benchmark instances demonstrates that HGLS, with additional features, significantly improves fuel consumption and emission reductions compared to baseline heuristics. Furthermore, a real-world case study on municipal waste collection reveals that optimized routing plans reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 9-11% while lowering total costs by 8-9%. The optimized solutions also meet strict policy targets under constrained conditions, showcasing the potential of E-CVRPTW in real-world applications. A sensitivity analysis explores the trade-offs among fuel prices, carbon prices, and emission weights, providing valuable insights for decision-makers in urban service planning and sustainability-focused policy formulation
Holding the anchor of entrepreneurship across contexts
Full text linkAt its core, entrepreneurship is dynamic, it grows through constant evolution, bold experimentation, and adaptive thinking. But as the field matures, it has become clear that entrepreneurship is not universally uniform. It is fundamentally shaped by context: by institutions, culture, history, and geography. And in the face of ever-greater complexity and disruption, we must ask, what grounds entrepreneurial activity across such diverse and unpredictable environments?This introductory chapter proposes the concept of an entrepreneurial anchor, a guiding framework that enables entrepreneurship to retain direction, purpose, and resilience across diverse settings. As this volume will explore, contexts are not passive backdrops but active forces that shape what entrepreneurship is, who engages in it, and how it unfolds. Yet, in a myriad of contexts, what ensures that entrepreneurship remains a driver of economic, social, and cultural transformation?<br/
The role of standardized technical packages in ensuring consistency and accuracy in apparel product development
Full text linkTech pack is a comprehensive communication document that provides detailed instructions and specifications for apparel production. It serves as contracts between design sections, production sections, and clients, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and effective communication throughout the product development process. This study aims to identify and examine the specific components of tech packs. Through surveys, interviews, and analysis of existing tech packs, the study validates the importance of each component and its contribution to the overall effectiveness of tech packs. The methodology involves hypothesis generation, questionnaire development, data collection through surveys, and data analysis using statistical techniques. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) technique was used to prove the model statistically by using AMOS and SPSS software. Results were improved by several iterations, and they verified that the obtained components of tech packs are necessary to get the right information from customers. Furthermore, this study will contribute to the improvement and standardization of tech pack development, ultimately enhancing productivity and ensuring consistent and accurate apparel product development
Holding the anchor of entrepreneurship across contexts
Full text linkAt its core, entrepreneurship is dynamic, it grows through constant evolution, bold experimentation, and adaptive thinking. But as the field matures, it has become clear that entrepreneurship is not universally uniform. It is fundamentally shaped by context: by institutions, culture, history, and geography. And in the face of ever-greater complexity and disruption, we must ask, what grounds entrepreneurial activity across such diverse and unpredictable environments?This introductory chapter proposes the concept of an entrepreneurial anchor, a guiding framework that enables entrepreneurship to retain direction, purpose, and resilience across diverse settings. As this volume will explore, contexts are not passive backdrops but active forces that shape what entrepreneurship is, who engages in it, and how it unfolds. Yet, in a myriad of contexts, what ensures that entrepreneurship remains a driver of economic, social, and cultural transformation?<br/
Improving chatbot efficiency for sentiment analysis using NLP
Full text linkThis Project aims to create an arrangement to assist businesses make strides their client encounter and upgrade their chatbot capabilities. The arrangement includes examining a financial services company’s information collected by a chatbot (Chat log, a collection of conversational information between the bot and the client) and utilizing assumption investigation to understand user sentiments when employing a specific item or benefit [2]. By analyzing client criticism, the arrangement will recognize the ranges that require change and prioritize them based on the negative assumptions produced. The result of the investigation will help businesses make educated choices to hold clients, move forward their items, and eventually upgrade their commerce. The proposed arrangement can be quick in progressing the UI/UX involvement, giving a viable approach for basic considering, asset arranging, and budgeting [18]. This thesis explores the upgrade of chatbot effectiveness through estimation investigation utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP) strategies [4]. By allotting sentimental scores to client intuitive and categorizing them into positive, negative, neutral, frustrated, and curious assumptions, the think about points to refine chatbot reactions and move forward by and large client encounter [15]. The investigation utilizes Python programming language to conduct estimation investigation and develop a CHAID choice tree to recognize designs in client behavior [16]. The discoveries of this think about are anticipated to contribute to the improvement of more brilliant and sympathetic chatbots able of viably tending to client needs and feelings. In conclusion, this research presents the progression of chatbot innovation and illustrates its potential to revolutionize client intelligent within the keeping banking industry. For future research about ought to center on creating strong end-to-end testing components to guarantee ideal chatbot execution and distinguishing inventive ways to utilize assumption examination to advance modern monetary items and administrations [3]. By continuously refining chatbot innovation and adjusting it with advancing client needs, money related teach can make more locks in and personalized client encounters
Effect of fiber orientation and layering on shape distortion and mechanical behavior of jute composites
Full text linkPlant fibers provide a biodegradable and sustainable alternative to synthetic reinforcements in polymer composites. However, process-induced shape distortion, which occurs from the residual stresses produced due to varying thermal expansion and complex interaction between the fiber and resin matrix, is a key problem in their use. This research examines the impact of varying stacking sequences and number of layers on the shape distortion of jute/epoxy composites. Jute yarn was impregnated with epoxy resin to make prepreg sheets. These sheets were stacked at different angles and configurations and consolidated to make flat composite sheet using compression molding. Following the post-curing of these composites, a significant curvature was observed in the flat plates, which was quantified in terms of curvature height and radius of curvature. The tensile properties, thermal conductivity and Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE), of the developed composite materials were also evaluated. The findings revealed that the composite with a stacking sequence of [0/90/0] exhibited enhanced tensile strength, reaching 90.077 MPa. Composite featuring a stacking sequence of [0/90/0/90], exhibited the least curvature height and minimal warpage (0.4 mm in longitudinal and 2.2 mm in transverse direction). Additionally, it also exhibited a value of 3.33 × 10−6 for CTE and of 0.0283 W/m·K for thermal conductivity
Ethics and Education special issue - hope, agency, and the question of the future: education’s role in responding to the climate emergency
Full text linkThis paper proposes ideas of an ethics that destabilizes the axis of anthropocentrism around which climate change education revolves. Education is a future-oriented practice, narrated as aiming at ‘solving’ the climate crisis, or ‘saving’ the planet. I set out to unsettle established notions of humans’ ethical responsibility for the world, considering instead our capacity to be responsible with non-human others. What follows is an ecological ethics that conceives of humanity as mutually interdependent and inextricably involved in complex interrelationships with plants. Plants are seen as being beyond ethical considerations; reduced to the level of resources, food sources, or ornaments, we do not feel the need to question or consider our ethical responsibilities to them. We begin by travelling the greatest distance from ourselves, the paper proposes how we might begin this ethics, centered on the notion of being responsible as remaining open and attentive to the other, and answering – through meaningful action – in reply. The conversational responsiveness of this ethics does not assume mastery over plants, nor does it seek to reduce plants to images of ourselves. Indeed, this new understanding of responsibility presupposes the agency and awareness of plants
Peri-urban real estate, land-use changes, and sustainability challenges in Bangalore:lessons from the Global South
Full text linkPeri-urbanization in rapidly growing cities of the Global South is increasingly driven not only by demographic growth but by escalating inner-city land and housing prices that push households and developers toward peripheral zones. Bangalore exemplifies this transition, where housing affordability pressures, speculative real estate investment, and weak land governance interact to transform agricultural landscapes into fragmented built-up clusters. Using satellite imagery (1991–2024), census data, and GIS-based land-use classification, this study quantifies peri-urban expansion across eight clusters in the Bangalore Metropolitan Region. The results show rapid built-up growth, agricultural land decline, and increasing spatial fragmentation, reflecting processes of extended urbanization beyond formal city boundaries. These transformations produce environmental stress, infrastructure deficits, and socio-spatial inequalities. The paper situates Bangalore within planetary urbanization debates and argues that peri-urban sustainability depends on land market regulation, spatial planning capacity, and data-driven governance