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Nurse educators’ views on online clinical teaching : insights from South Africa’s public nursing colleges
Mabitja, Moeta; Mavis, Mulaudzi Fhumulani (Elsevier, 2025-10-15)
INTRODUCTION : Nursing education institutions have an obligation to create learning platforms to ensure that students are exposed to learning experiences enhancing their confidence and skill as qualified professionals. Challenges negatively influencing the education and training of nursing students include inadequate resources, nurse educator-student ratio, clinical placement, and occurrence of uncommon medical conditions. Online-based activities provide an alternative platform to lessen the challenges in clinical teaching. METHODS : A qualitative, explorative, and descriptive design was adopted. Data was collected through three focus group interviews from fifteen (n = 15) nurse educators and analyzed using thematic content analysis. FINDINGS : The analysis revealed two main themes: (a) Teaching convenience associated with the use of online activities and (b) Availability of capital resources. The findings revealed that online clinical activities provided substantial teaching convenience by enhancing flexibility and efficiency in clinical instruction. However, the implementation of these activities was hindered by critical challenges, particularly the limited availability of capital resources such as reliable internet connectivity and appropriate technological tools. DISCUSSION : Views of nurse educators sought to assist nursing education institutions to plan on measures for preventing challenges that can negatively affect effective use of online platform for clinical teaching. Nurse educators considered online activities as an innovative platform that can enhance clinical teaching and contribute positively to clinical learning experiences, although careful consideration must be given to the nature of the nursing discipline. CONCLUSION : While online clinical activities enhance teaching convenience in clinical education, addressing resource limitations is essential for their successful integration in public nursing colleges.
The under-representation of the global South on editorial boards in criminology
Breetzke, Gregory Dennis (International Journal of Crime Justice and Social Democracy, 2025-12)
Less than 5% of editorial board members across all 69 journals listed under the Criminology and Penology category of Clarivate’s Web of Science database have affiliations with institutions in the Global South. Moreover, editorial board members from the Global South are significantly more likely to sit on lower “quality” journals than their Global North counterparts. The extreme skewness in regional representation of editorial board membership is symptomatic of a broader marginalization of the Global South in academia in general, and criminology specifically. The study’s findings should be of importance (and concern) to all criminologists who believe that a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive representation of scholars across all phases of the academic publishing process is key to better understanding the context of crime: a global problem. A number of recommendations are outlined that can be used to increase the regional representativeness of editorial boards.
Organic acid supplementation in worker honeybees (Apis mellifera) : impacts on glandular physiology and colony resilience
Bezabih, Gebreamlak; Atsbha, Tesfay; Altaye, Solomon Zewdu; Zhou, Qingsong; Li, Jianke; Pirk, Christian Walter Werner; Zhu, Chaodong; Fang, Yu (MDPI, 2025-11-26)
Honeybees require diverse nutrients for larval growth, adult development, and colony health. Pollen quality significantly impacts reproduction, productivity, and growth. Bioactive substances from honeybee glands enhance colony health, with recent studies showing that optimal citric acid intake extends lifespan, boosts pollen consumption, accelerates mandibular gland development, and improves royal jelly quality. This review examines organic acid feeding's effects on gland development and overall health, offering insights for beekeeping and supplementary food development to support sustainable apiculture. Research gaps in organic acid supplementation, gland development, and health benefits are identified. The impact of varying organic acid concentrations on 10-HDA biosynthesis in mandibular glands and key regulatory proteins influencing 10-HDA expression is summarized. Findings highlight the benefits of organic acid supplements for worker bee gland development and health, guiding future research and practical applications in beekeeping.
An optimized block hybrid spectral simple iteration methods for solving nonlinear evolution equations
Ahmedai, Salma; Sibanda, Precious; Motsa, Sandile; Goqo, Sicelo; Noreldin, Osman A.I. (Wiley, 2025-12)
This study presents a new optimized block hybrid method and spectral simple iteration method (OBHM-SSIM) for solving nonlinear evolution equations. In this method, we employed a combination of the spectral collocation method in space and the optimized block hybrid method in time, along with a simple iteration scheme to linearize the equations. The performance of OBHM-SSIM is compared with other established numerical methods for various nonlinear evolution equations, including the Stokes' second problem equation, Burgers─Fisher equation, Burgers─Huxley equation, the FitzHugh─Nagumo equation with time-dependent coefficients, and coupled Burgers' equations. Furthermore, the proposed OBHM-SSIM is implemented to solve -dimensional problems, specifically the nonlinear Burgers' equation and the cubic Klein─Gordon equation, demonstrating its capability to solve nonlinear systems efficiently. The extension to two-dimensional cases further validates the flexibility and accuracy of the OBHM-SSIM method, achieved with a notably reduced computational cost. Unlike conventional spectral methods, the proposed OBHM-SSIM achieves high-order accuracy with fewer grid points by optimizing intra-step points and maintaining A-stability for large time domains. We demonstrate that the OBHM-SSIM method gives highly accurate solutions with fewer grid points. This results in enhanced computational efficiency and reduced complexity, particularly for large time domains of nonlinear evolution equations. The findings of this study offer a new approach for the application of the spectral block hybrid method, ultimately improving the accuracy and efficiency of computational solutions for nonlinear evolution equations.
Psychosocial factors influencing the sexual risk behaviour of adolescents living with and affected by HIV who reside in HIV-affected homes in Uganda
Kiirya, Stephen Kisembe; Visser, Maret; Masenge, Andries (Springer, 2026)
We examined the psychosocial factors that predict sexual risk behaviour of adolescents who reside in HIV affected homes in Uganda, to provide evidence for developing suitable interventions. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data about these adolescents’ psychosocial and sexual experiences. The scales and data were verified for precision and reliability using factor analyses, while the predictors of sexual risk behaviour were examined using general linear models. Results showed that having been female, in the younger adolescence stage and a Muganda or Lango, living with one caregiver, being a recipient of HIV/psychosocial care and vulnerable to negative peer influence, personal threats, interpersonal problems, psychosocial distresses (e.g. psychosis and delinquency) and coping by deflecting problems, significantly enabled sexual risk behaviour in these adolescents. However, attending school, religious conviction, experiencing orphanhood especially of the mother, living with two caregivers, and experiencing poverty, judgmental HIV stigma, distress (e.g. inattention and depression), self-control and social support significantly deterred it. These results highlight the centrality of gender, age, HIV care, family situations, sociocultural and peer norms, community stressors, psychosocial distresses, and negative coping methods in influencing sexual risk behaviour of adolescents who reside in HIV affected homes. Interventions by families, schools and agencies are needed to prevent or mitigate these risk factors.