While conventional technologies like Zoom have limitations in interpersonal communication and a risk-free training environment in delivering comprehensive corporate training, the Metaverse provides immersive, face-to-face, interactive, and simulated learning opportunities. However, the literature highlights significant Metaverse adoption barriers and emphasises the need for interdisciplinary research-driven competency integration solutions. Furthermore, the present study investigates essential competencies human resource development professionals need to develop to implement Metaverse-based training, as a literature research gap. Anchored in the Critical Success Factor theory, the study has utilised the Spherical Fuzzy-Bayesian Best Worst Method and Grey Influence Analysis to prioritise and analyse the influential relations of the identified competencies. The findings highlight the significance of technical and gamification competency categories and competencies related to privacy and security, content loss, scripting, playability, and ethical and social responsibility. These findings signify the competencies for implementing the Metaverse for training by the human resource development professionals.

The Qualifying Law Degree (QLD) resulted in law degrees tending to be similar in design, with compulsory foundation modules at their core. The Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) represents a significant change to solicitor qualification and potentially frees universities from the constraints of the foundations. There was also speculation that some universities would feel pressure to align undergraduate curricula to the SQE. This paper makes a contribution to knowledge by undertaking the first content analysis of LLB webpages since the SQE’s implementation. The data reveals that: (1) law schools still overwhelmingly require mandatory study of all the foundations; (2) there has been an incremental shift towards vocationalism; (3) a small minority of webpages may be overstating the extent that their LLB prepares students for the SQE; and (4) a significant proportion of webpages contain factually inaccurate or confusing information about programmes or routes to qualification. It confirms an inherent irony: the deregulation of undergraduate solicitor education in England and Wales had led to more vocational alignment than experienced under the previous system but has not resulted in a significant shift away from the foundations. We present a novel explanation as to why this is the case, based on institutional theory and organisational strategic theory.

In ‘From survival cannibalism to climate politics: Rethinking Regina vs Dudley and Stephens’, Itamar Mann argues inter alia that survival cannibalism and the duty to rescue at sea can inform how to approach climate politics (Mann, p 1). In this piece, I will address this claim through maritime law, the law of the sea and human rights law perspectives. In particular, I will argue that the criminalisation of survival cannibalism is justified on grounds of protection of the fundamental right to life. Survival cannibalism is presented here as a ‘practice’ or ‘custom of the sea’ rather than a maritime custom or ‘bottom-up customary law’ (Mann, pp 4–6). I will suggest an alternative model of sacrifice accompanied by a system of redress grounded in the maritime custom of general average to inform the commonist lifeboat model proposed. In this process that starts at the inner circle before moving to the outer circle where the customary duty to rescue at sea is examined, class dynamics will be briefly considered. The environment will be the last element examined through the Teitiota case. Human rights concerns inform the overall approach taken in an effort to affirm and advance fundamental principles in addressing climate adaptation.

Falls account for 95 percent of hip fractures in older adults. Wearable hip protectors reduce hip fracture risk in long-term care settings, but their use is low among community-dwelling older adults. We conducted interviews to explore how hip protectors are perceived by 27 community-dwelling older adults who visited the Fraser Health Fall Prevention Mobile Clinic in British Columbia. Directed content analysis focused on perceived benefits, design preferences, and cost as a barrier to use of hip protectors. Most participants acknowledged the benefits of hip protectors in reducing the risk of hip fracture, enhancing physical activity, and reducing the fear of falling. However, most participants did not perceive they were at high enough risk to warrant the use of hip protectors. Participants also discussed how willingness to wear depended on design features, including style, pad thickness, appearance, ease of use, fit, comfort, and laundering. Participants also noted the cost, ranging from $60 to $120, as a barrier.

If supposedly homophonous words were acoustically distinct despite sharing phonemic form, theories of mental storage may have to account for the consistent differences with separate storage for each homophone. Previous studies of the homophonous functions or word classes of the English word like showed such subphonemic differences between functions, though some studies also found effects of utterance context alongside these. Schleef & Turton (2018) argued that all these function effects reduce to context effects, since function is not independent of context – for example, quotative like typically occurs before a pause and thus is typically subject to lengthening because of its position, not due to a lexicalised acoustic distinction between functions. Testing this argument with new data from a different regional variety to those used by Schleef & Turton, we only find differences that can be explained by context, in line with their argument. This casts prior findings of acoustic distinctions between like functions in new light, and introduces the need for further research (especially including the frequency of different functions).

This article contributes to the ongoing debate on populist radical-right parties in power and illiberalism, focusing on the Italian League and its welfare chauvinist agenda. It consists of ethnographic research conducted in a medium-sized city located in one of the party’s electoral strongholds. During its term in municipal office, the party changed the regulation on school services (buses and canteens), requiring non-EU families to present additional documentation in order to access reduced charges. The ‘canteens affair’ provoked the exclusion of immigrant children from the services, a strong mobilization of local civil society, an echo in the international media and a legal dispute between a civic committee and the League’s administration. Starting from this specific case, the article sheds new empirical light on the illiberal turn of Western democratic systems, understood as the progressive erosion of liberal-democratic principles of universalism and equality.

This article analyzes four war-themed exhibitions in Ukraine’s two leading national museums and studies their role in documenting, interpreting, and exhibiting the Russo-Ukrainian war. This research intends to prove that since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, museums have been conceptualizing the war through narratives of suffering and sacrifice, grounding tangible historical authenticity through the display of items such as war trophies and personal belongings. The narrative of suffering tends to be based on the opposition of “we” and “they,” where “we” focuses on civilian torment and resurrection as the main metaphor of physical and spiritual survival, and “they” are predominantly depicted as the military enemy, creating strong anti-Russian and anti-Soviet tendencies. The martyrdom narrative of sacrifice focuses on Ukraine’s (fallen) defenders, whose image is created by deep personalization, nationalization, and heroization. This article argues that musealization of the Russo-Ukrainian war exemplifies and represents “warring memory,” which is predetermined and justified by active engagement in an ongoing war while performing the functions of testimony, resilience, and mourning.

Ageing-in-place for persons with dementia and informal care-givers is encouraged by governments and society. However, individuals with non-Western migration backgrounds are at higher risk of dementia yet underrepresented in research and care. This study aims to identify ageing-in-place care preferences of persons with dementia and their informal care-givers in the Netherlands. Semi-structured interviews (n = 8 participants with dementia, n = 20 informal care-givers) were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings reveal that informal care-givers feel a strong duty to care, assisting with various daily tasks. While they desire shared care with professionals, identifying concrete care needs is challenging, highlighting the need for proactive professional support. Participants also emphasized the importance of culturally sensitive in-home care, home adaptations, social care and accessible dementia information. Additionally, the emotional impact of dementia on care recipients and care-givers underscores the need for emotional support. These insights enhance understanding of the care preferences of persons with dementia and their informal care-givers, aiding more efficient and culturally responsive health service planning.

How do state interventions targeting illicit economies influence armed violence? Using Colombia as a critical case, we argue that aerial spraying of coca crops exacerbates violence by destabilizing local power dynamics and disrupting interactions among armed actors, civilians, and the state. Using municipal-level data from 2000 to 2015, we find that aerial spraying increases overall levels of violence in affected areas. Aerial spraying, we find, propitiates retaliatory violence against the state, stimulates turf wars between armed organizations, and produces civilian victimization. Moreover, we show that paramilitaries and criminal organizations respond more sharply to aerial spraying, escalating retaliation against the state and violence against civilians. By contrast, insurgent violence remains more consistent, driven by ideological goals and largely independent of eradication efforts. These findings reveal how fleeting large-scale interventions can inadvertently fuel conflict by altering the strategic equilibria of violent actors in illicit economies.

Revolutionary movements operated underground before and after national independence in many African countries. A communist party in Burkina Faso, the Parti communiste révolutionnaire voltaïque (PCRV), continued its underground political practice, despite democratic breakthrough. On the basis of long-term research engagement on popular struggle and the fight against impunity, the author used participant observation in street marches, meetings, sit-ins, and so on, and text analysis of pamphlets, declarations, and tracts to analyze how the PCRV is present in anti-imperialist struggles, while being absent in the public sphere.