Managing Aquaculture Noise: Impacts on Fish Hearing, Welfare, and Mitigation Strategies - Duan, Shanshan; Vasconcelos, Raquel; Wu, Lele; Li, Xin; Sun, Wen; Li, Xian (Reviews in Aquaculture, 2025)
ABSTRACT As intensive aquaculture continues to develop, substantial investments have been made in equipment to sustain high‐density farming. However, this has resulted in elevated noise levels within these aquaculture environments, particularly below 2000 Hz, matching the hearing range of most cultured fish species. Fish under noise conditions may experience hearing loss and physiological stress, which can negatively affect their growth, foraging efficiency, reproductive success, and increase their susceptibility to diseases. These adverse effects compromise the welfare of cultured fish, potentially decreasing production quality and increasing mortality rates. Despite these notable effects, the understanding and management of noise conditions in aquaculture systems lag behind other environmental parameters in terms of recognition and control. In this review, we cover the fundamentals of fish auditory systems, the hearing range of key cultured fish species, and the most common noise sources and levels prevalent in current intensive aquaculture systems. Additionally, we examine recent discoveries on the effects of anthropogenic noise on fish hearing, physiological responses, and behavior. Finally, we provide strategies for noise monitoring and management in the aquaculture industry, while also highlighting open questions for future research. Our goal is to assist researchers and practitioners in comprehending underwater noise and its effects on cultured fish species, providing a valuable resource for promoting the healthy and sustainable development of intensive aquaculture.

FINANCIAL VALUATION OF AMAZON - Deng, Xu Feng (2025)
Amazon is a global leader in e-commerce and cloud computing that has continually proven that it can diversify its business model well beyond being just one of the world's largest online retailers. Study its financial results, strategic initiatives by SWOT Analysis, and access its market positioning in industry by using PESTEL Analysis and Porter’s Five Forces Analysis. In order to ascertain the intrinsic value and assess the future prospects of Amazon, the study then utilizes several financial models, Enterprise Discounted Cash Flow (EDCF), Adjusted Present Value (APV) and Discounted Economic Profit (DEP). The study presents Amazon is potentially overvalued (December 31, 2024).

AN EXPLORATION OF PARENTS' PERSPECTIVES AND REASONS FOR PROVIDING ELECTRONIC DEVICES FOR YOUNG CHILDREN IN MACAO - Chio, Chong Leng (2025)
This qualitative study explores parental perspectives and decision-making processes regarding young children's engagement with electronic devices in Macao. Data was collected through semi- structured, in-depth interviews with 15 parents of young children. The researcher analysed the interview contents and synthesized the findings with relevant literature and theoretical support, resulting in the following key insights: 1. Parental attitudes towards children's use of electronic devices were found to be distinctly polarised. Parents with a more open attitude viewed electronic devices as an inevitable part of modern life, suggesting that excessive restrictions might hinder children's development. In contrast, parents with a more conservative perspective emphasised the developmental risks of early exposure. Three primary factors influenced parental attitudes; the parents’ level of professional knowledge in education, their own usage habits, and their sense of parental self-efficacy. Additionally, parental behaviours had a modelling effect on children's usage patterns, directly correlating with the stringency of their management strategies. 2. Regarding child development, parents generally recognised the educational value of electronic devices, particularly the ability of multimedia interactivity to enhance learning engagement and facilitate knowledge acquisition. However, they also expressed concerns about the potential risks in three developmental domains: physiological development (e.g., visual eye strain, sedentary behaviour), psychological development (e.g., addiction, reduced social interaction), and cognitive development (e.g., diminished attention span, fewer opportunities for practical learning). Parents with professional knowledge of child development tended to adopt more comprehensive assessment perspectives and balanced usage strategies. 3. The study identified three primary contexts in which parents provided electronic devices to their children: first, as a response to parenting stress, where parents used devices to gain brief respite or manage household tasks; second, as behavioural management tools, using devices for reward and punishment mechanisms, such as encouraging good behaviour, boosting learning motivation, or soothing children in specific situations (e.g., during illness or mealtime); and third, as influenced by external environmental factors, including caregiving differences (e.g., grandparents, domestic helpers), the technological emphasis in educational settings, and peer influence on children's social interactions. III 4. In terms of management strategies, parents predominantly employed three approaches: restrictive mediation, focusing on controlling screen time and filtering content; technical mediation, involving the use of device security settings and application restrictions; and alternative activity planning, such as encouraging children to engage in constructive play and artistic activities. However, the study revealed that parents less frequently utilised active educational mediation (e.g., discussing content, sharing experiences) and co-viewing strategies (e.g., joint parent-child usage, interactive learning). Based on these findings, the researcher provides recommendations for parents, schools, educators, and government agencies to establish a more comprehensive and supportive framework for young children's use of electronic devices and related services. 本研究採用質性研究方法，探討澳門家長對幼兒使用電子產品的觀點及決策因由，透過半 結構式深度訪談，收集 15 位育有幼兒之家長的經驗與看法。研究者根據訪談內容進行分析 討論，並輔以相關文獻和理論支持，歸納出以下研究結果: (一) 家長對幼兒使用電子產品的態度呈現明顯的兩極分化:持開放態度的家長視其為時代 趨勢，認為過度限制可能阻礙幼兒發展;持保守態度的家長則強調提早接觸電子產品可能帶 來發展風險。研究發現，家長的態度主要受三個因素影響:教育專業知識水平、個人使用習 慣，以及親職效能感。此外，家長的行為會通過示範效應影響幼兒的使用模式，並直接關係 到其管理策略的嚴格程度。 (二) 在幼兒發展方面，家長普遍認同電子產品的教育價值，尤其是其多媒體互動特性能提 升學習投入度及知識獲取。然而，家長同時關注其潛在風險，這些風險主要集中在三個層 面:生理發展(如視力損害、久坐問題)、心理發展(如沉迷、社交互動)、認知發展(如 專注力、實踐機會)。研究發現，具備幼兒發展專業知識的家長更傾向採取全面的評估視角 和均衡的使用策略。 (三) 家長提供電子產品予幼兒的三個主要情境包括:首先是因應育兒壓力，家長表示會透 過電子產品獲得短暫休息及處理家務的時間。其次是行為管理工具，家長運用電子產品進行 獎懲，包括鼓勵良好行為、提升學習動機，以及在特定情境下(如幼兒不適或進食)作為安 撫工具。第三是受外在環境因素的影響，主要來自三方面:替代照顧者(如祖父母、家傭) 的管教差異、教育環境的科技化趨勢，以及同儕使用經驗對幼兒社交需求的影響。 (四) 在管理策略方面，家長主要採取三種調解方式:限制性調解，著重於使用時間管控與 內容篩選;技術性調解，運用設備安全管理功能與應用程式限制;替代活動規劃，包括引導 幼兒參與建構性遊戲與藝術創作等。研究發現，家長較少採用具教育意義的指導性調解(如 內容討論、經驗分享)和社交共賞(如親子共同使用、互動學習)策略。 基於上述研究發現，研究者分別對家長，學校及教師、以及政府部門提出建議，期望建立 更適切且全面的幼兒電子產品使用框架及相關支援服務。

LOVE, OBSESSION AND DESTRUCTION: THE PHILOSOPHICAL CONNOTATION OF LILIAN LEE’S NOVEL ROUGE - Chan, Siu Mo (2025)
This dissertation focuses on the novel Rouge by the Hong Kong-based writer Lilian Lee, which is a fantasy novel that proclaims feminism by deploying a love tragedy, describing the social context and atmosphere of Hong Kong in the 1930s and 1980s, and the living and afterlife experiences of the courtesan Fleur. Rouge was first published in 1984 and subsequently adapted into a film in 1988, which won several awards at film festivals. The novel Rouge can be regarded as Lilian Lee’s most representative work and a significant cultural symbol of Hong Kong in the 1990s. Love is a universal human experience that has a significant impact on our lives, relationships, and our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Consequently, philosophers have long sought to gain insight into its nature, origins and role in human existence, which makes the exploration of love a core focus of philosophical inquiry. This research will examine how the novel Rouge explores the interplay between authentic love and ego love, and will also investigate the causes that led to Fleur’s tragedy.

A Phenomenological Study of Social Participation of Men in Female Social Service Organisation - Ho, I. Lam (2025)
Today, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls have become one of the sustainable development goals jointly regarded by the international community. As society's understanding of gender gradually becomes more diverse and open, more and more people are beginning to pay attention to men's needs. Although society generally recognizes gender equality and pays attention to the development of women, relatively little attention is paid to the development and needs of men. Men also have needs and expectations, and are influenced by society's traditional expectations in their willingness to participate in associations. This study outlines the phenomenon that men’s participation in community services is generally lower than that of women, and cites data from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and other places to support this view. Although gender equality is a global concern, there are relatively few protection policies and services specifically for men in Macau and surrounding areas. In the context of pursuing gender equality, men's rights and needs should not be ignored. Therefore, this study aims to explore men's motivations for participating in women's group social services. It uses qualitative research and a phenomenological approach to 15 invited respondents. Interview samples were collected through in-depth interviews. Different findings were obtained from the research results through the use of description and inductive analysis through the life stories of the interviewees. The research concluded that service can not only meet their personal needs and experience the achievement of development tasks, but also found the key experience factors, that is, the four major motivations for men to participate in clubs, including personal service spirit, personal life needs, maintenance Social relationships and personal interests and preferences and six elements of continuous participation, including contrast in values, tangible experience, feeling changed, having challenges and growth, improving horizons and knowledge, and feeling a sense of belonging. The study also obtained four suggestions from the interviewees for social services and their expected experiences. This study also inspired social workers to formulate comprehensive and targeted men's policies, not only to respond to the diverse needs of the men's group, but also to It is the key to promoting comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of society. 現今性別平等與增強婦女和女童的權能，已成為國際社會共同視為持續發展目標之一。隨著社會對兩性的認知逐漸變得多元及開放，越來越多人士開始關注男士的需要。儘管社會普遍認同性別平等並關注婦女發展情況，但對男士的發展和需求關注相對不足。男士同樣有需求和期望，並且受社會傳統的期望影響參與社團的意願。 本研究概述了社團服務中男性參與度普遍低於女性的現象，並引用了香港、臺灣及澳門等地的數據來支撐這一觀點。儘管性別平等是全球關注的議題，但在澳門及周邊地區，專門針對男性的保護政策和服務相對較少。在追求性別平等的背景下，男士的權益和需求不應被忽視，因此本研究旨在探討男士參與婦女團體社會服務的動機，採用質性研究，以現象學方式，向受邀的 15 位受訪樣本，透過深度訪談蒐集資料。藉著受訪者闡述生活故事，運用描述及歸納分析，從研究結果中得到不同的發現。研究結論得出，服務既滿足到他們的個人需要，以及體 驗到發展任務的達成，另外找到了關鍵體驗的因素，即男士參與社團的四個動機，包括個人服務精神、個人生活需要、維繫社會關係、個人興趣與喜好以及六個持續參與元素，包括 價值觀的反差、切實之體驗、感受到改變、.有挑戰和成長、提升視野知識以及感覺歸屬感。 研究也得到了受訪者對社會服務的四個建議，以及他們期望的體驗，這樣研究同時啟發了社會工作者如何制定全面且有針對性的男士政策，不僅是回應男士群體多元化需求，更是推動社會全面、協調、可持續發展的關鍵所在。

ANALYSES OF THE PERCEPTION OF THE IMPACT OF PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION LAW ON SMES OPERATING IN MACAO - Kuan, Su Cheng (2025)
Macao is a small city, and most businesses operating in Macao are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). With personal data protection gaining increasing global attention, what impact does personal data protection law have on the operations of SMEs in Macao? What is the perception of the impact of the Personal Data Protection Law on the operation of Macao's SMEs? This thesis aims to make a corresponding analysis. The article examines Macao's current business environment and enterprise models, integrates data collected from SME surveys, and considers Macao's economic development trajectory before and after its return to China. It analyzes Macao's connections with Portuguese-speaking countries, the European Union, and the cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which the Chinese government is actively developing. By studying the characteristics of personal data protection legal systems in various countries and regions and their influence on Macao, the paper provides recommendations for enhancing SMEs' awareness of personal data protection and leveraging personal data protection laws to improve business operations in Macao. 澳門是一個細小的城市，在澳門做生意的企業大多是中小企業，個人資料保護在全球日益受到重視，究竟個人資料保護法對澳門中小企營運又帶來甚麼影響 ? 澳門中小企營運過程中，對個人資料保護法影響認知有多少? 本篇論文將會作出相應分析，文章透過分析澳門現時具體營商環境及企業模式，結合透過中小企問卷調查搜集獲得之資料，以及澳門在回歸後，前後經濟發展歷程中與葡語系國家、歐盟、以及與現時中國政府大力發展之大灣區城市之聯系，分析各國家及地區的個人資料保護法律制度之特色以及對澳門之影響，最後就澳門中小企未來就加強中小企個人資料保護意識以及善用個人資料保護法律營商作出建議。

Managing the Performance of the Facility Management for Improvement of the Hotel Operations - Kuong, Chi Chun (2025)
Management of people” and “enhancement of the system” are the focused aspects for improvement of the business operations in this thesis. A case study was carried out in the Facility Management department of a five-star hotel. A list of questionnaire was delivered to about 50% employees of the FM department for the purpose of identifying the awareness of the Organizational Culture. The result indicate that the “Work Process” and “Organization Climate” are the higher score elements than the “Leadership Style” and “Organization Value”. The results tell the management that people are reluctant to change the present work process and the leadership is not effective in the organization. The above issues represent the employees’ behavior and attitude which can affect the employees’ performance as well as the company’s operational efficiency. Suitable management techniques are applied to analyze the employees’ needs and group the people into passive and active attitude, then the appropriate motivation schemes are proposed aiming to improve the overall performance of different groups of employees. The latest technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G mobile communications are proposed for enhancement of the current FM systems aiming for the improvement on fast response, operational cost saving , carbon neutralization and comfort to customers. The proposed system enhancement also considers the minimal investment, so the system enhancement is mainly executed by software upgrade on the core system and replacement of the Smart Sensing devices. The hardware of core equipment can be re-used. AI technology is the future trend of operational improvement, it will be considered as the next step when AI become mature and standardized.

Financial Valuation of Caterpillar Inc. - Zeng, Fanxin (2025)
Caterpillar, one of the world's most recognised industrial brands, is a leading global manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, as well as diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. Currently, Caterpillar operates in North America, Asia Pacific, EAME region and Latin America, with operations in North America accounting for approximately 47% of the company's net revenue in 2022. Caterpillar has been able to win customers' trust and achieve stable business growth through reliable products, advanced technology, user-friendly services and differentiated service solutions. Post-coronavirus, it can be seen that the industry in which Caterpillar operates is vulnerable to changes in the economic and social environment. In addition, the industry is becoming increasingly competitive, especially with the rise of emerging players, such as construction equipment manufacturers in China, who are entering the markets of developing countries with cost-effective products. In addition to that, such as the traditional machinery manufacturing companies in Europe and Japan, their products are not only highly intelligent, but also motorised equipment technology is quite reliable. It is a tough challenge to maintain a competitive edge. Understanding the impact of these changes on the industry and the company helps in assessing the intrinsic value of Caterpillar and its future positioning. Comparing the intrinsic value derived from the three valuation models to the company's market share price as of 31 December 2022 will provide valuable information to investors.

THE NATURE OF HOLISTIC CONSCIOUSNESS IN HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY - Wong, Enia (2025)
This thesis explores the nature of holistic consciousness in Hermetic philosophy, drawing on the classical text of The Emerald Tablet and The Corpus Hermeticum attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. Central to this ancient philosophy from Hellenistic Alexandria is the “as above, so below” principle, highlighting the interconnectedness of all things. Hermetic philosophy views harmony as the balance and interconnection of all elements in the universe. Sound, tied to the divine word, is vital for this harmony and understanding of creation and divine wisdom. This thesis focuses on the relationship between human, cosmic, and divine consciousness. Through divinization, humans can align with cosmic consciousness, realizing their divine nature by transcending physical limitations. Furthermore, we will review Hermetic philosophy in light of contemporary challenges, such as materialism which has caused environmental, social and mental health crises. Hermetic philosophy’s holistic approach and emphasis on interconnectedness can counteract social atomization caused by digital technology. Hermetic philosophy having a scientific-rational basis, can be aligned with contemporary ideas like the holographic universe theory. Self-reflection, meditation, nature engagement, and inner dialogue are all proven methods for cultivating holistic consciousness, as advocated in Hermetic philosophy. We can better understand the universe by integrating Hermetic wisdom with science. 這篇論文探討赫爾墨斯哲學中整體意識的性質，參考了赫爾墨斯·特里斯梅吉斯圖斯所屬的古典文本《翡翠石板》和《赫爾墨斯文集》。這一源自希臘化亞歷山大的古老哲學的核心原則是「上如是下」，強調所有事物之間的相互連結。 赫爾墨斯哲學視和諧為宇宙中所有元素的平衡與相互關聯。聲音與神聖之語相連，對於這種和諧及對創造與神聖智慧的理解至關重要。這篇論文專注於人類、宇宙與神聖意識之間的關係。透過神化，人類能夠與宇宙意識對齊，超越身體的限制，實現其神聖本質。 此外，我們將審視赫爾墨斯哲學在當代挑戰下的意義，例如物質主義所導致的環境、社會和心理健康危機。赫爾墨斯哲學的整體方法和對相互連結的強調，可以對抗數位科技所造成的社會原子化現象。 赫爾墨斯哲學具科學理性基礎，能與當代觀念如全息宇宙理論相結合。自我反思、冥想、與自然的互動及內心對話，都是培養整體意識的有效方法，正如赫爾墨斯哲學所提倡的。我們可以通過將赫爾墨斯智慧與科學相結合，更深入地理解宇宙。

Chinese Traditional Festival Culture and Customs of Game Design - Xie, Wan Ting (2025)
This board game is designed around China's major traditional festivals (such as the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, etc.) and their customs, with the aim of allowing players to experience and learn about China's rich cultural traditions through gameplay. The goal of the game is to earn points by completing festival tasks, answering questions about customs, and collecting festival items, with the highest scorer ultimately winning. The gameplay design includes elements like festival task cards, customs quizzes, and festival item collection to enhance interactivity and fun. Players will assume different roles in the game, using cards, maps, and festival-themed objects to gain a deeper understanding of the history and customs of each festival. Educational Value: This board game is not only entertaining but also helps players learn about traditional Chinese culture in a relaxed setting, enhancing cultural identity. It is suitable for family gatherings, friends' meetups, and educational settings, particularly for players interested in Chinese culture.

Modeling PM10 Emissions in Quarry and Mining Operations: Insights from AERMOD Applications in Malaysia - Khan, Md Munir Hayet; Kurniawan, Tonni Agustiono; Chandra, Indra; Lei, Thomas (Atmosphere, 2025)
PM10 emissions have been a significant concern in rock crushing and quarry operations (study site #1) and iron ore mining projects (study site #2) in certain regions of Malaysia, posing fears to the health and well-being of nearby communities with severe air pollution. To address this issue, it is crucial to develop effective mitigation strategies to reduce dust particle emissions like PM10 in the ambient air. The AERMOD model was applied to predict PM10 emissions during quarry operations and iron ore mining projects, both with and without control measures. The results indicated that PM10 emissions were reduced when control measures were implemented. The modeling result shows the mean PM10 concentration with and without control measures in study site #1 is 74.85 µg/m3 and 20,557.69 µg/m3, respectively. In comparison, the average PM10 concentration with and without control measures in study site #2 is 53.95 µg/m3 and 135.69 µg/m3. Therefore, the control measure has successfully reduced the PM10 concentrations by 99.90% and 60.24% in study sites #1 and #2, respectively, and ensures the air quality complies with the Malaysian Ambient Air Quality Guidelines (MAAQG) 24 h threshold limits at 100 µg/m3. In addition, the AERMOD modeling results showed that mitigation measures performed better in rock crushing and quarry operations than in iron ore mining projects in this case study.

NiCo-layered double hydroxide coating on nitrogen/oxygen co-doped carbon nanocage composite for high-performance supercapacitor electrode - Li, Changgang; Tan, Xiang; Hu, Weijie; Tan, Xiaoen; Xie, Wenyu; Liu, Zhisen (Ionics, 2025)
Nickel–cobalt-layered double hydroxide (NiCo-LDH) has received considerable attention in the field of supercapacitor; however, the low conductivity and structural instability limit its practical applications. In this paper, a facile strategy for the fabrication of NiCo-layered double hydroxide (NiCo-LDH) coating on nitrogen/oxygen co-doped carbon nanocages (NOCN) was proposed in this paper. This multicomponent nanocomposite, NiCo-LDH@NOCN, has a high specific capacitance of 1842 F g−1 at 1 A g−1, a remarkable rate capability of 68.1% increasing the current density to 30 A g−1, and excellent cycling stability of 72.1% after 1000 cycles. Furthermore, an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) composed of NiCo-LDH@NOCN as a positive electrode and NOCN as a negative electrode was fabricated. The ASC shows a superior energy density of 31.6 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 700 W kg−1, which suggests the great practical application potential of supercapacitor.

Vehicle to Grid: Technology, Charging Station, Power Transmission, Communication Standards, Techno-Economic Analysis, Challenges, and Recommendations - Biswas, Parag; Rashid, Abdur; Habib, A. K. M. Ahasan; Mahmud, Md; Motakabber, S. M. A.; Hossain, Sagar; Rokonuzzaman, Md; Molla, Altaf Hossain; Harun, Zambri; Khan, Md Munir Hayet; Cheng, Wan-Hee; Lei, Thomas (World Electric Vehicle Journal, 2025)
Electric vehicles (EVs) must be used as the primary mode of transportation as part of the gradual transition to more environmentally friendly clean energy technology and cleaner power sources. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology has the potential to improve electricity demand, control load variability, and improve the sustainability of smart grids. The operation and principles of V2G and its varieties, the present classifications and types of EVs sold on the market, applicable policies for V2G and business strategy, implementation challenges, and current problem-solving techniques have not been thoroughly examined. This paper exposes the research gap in the V2G area and more accurately portrays the present difficulties and future potential in V2G deployment globally. The investigation starts by discussing the advantages of the V2G system and the necessary regulations and commercial representations implemented in the last decade, followed by a description of the V2G technology, charging communication standards, issues related to V2G and EV batteries, and potential solutions. A few major issues were brought to light by this investigation, including the lack of a transparent business model for V2G, the absence of stakeholder involvement and government subsidies, the excessive strain that V2G places on EV batteries, the lack of adequate bidirectional charging and standards, the introduction of harmonic voltage and current into the grid, and the potential for unethical and unscheduled V2G practices. The results of recent studies and publications from international organizations were altered to offer potential answers to these research constraints and, in some cases, to highlight the need for further investigation. V2G holds enormous potential, but the plan first needs a lot of financing, teamwork, and technological development.

Understanding virtual influencers as brand endorsers: A conceptual framework for evaluating the traits of virtual influencers and an agenda for future research - Silva, Susana C.; Fernandes, Beatriz Pineda; Dias, Joana Carmo (Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 2025)
Over the last few years, brands have increasingly looked to influencer marketing to promote their products. More recently, a new approach has emerged, leveraging artificial intelligence to create virtual influencers. Despite the growing importance of virtual brand ambassadors, academic research on virtual influencers remains fragmented, with limited discussion regarding the ideal characteristics of such agents. This paper addresses this gap in the literature and identifies the conditions necessary for virtual influencers to deliver positive outcomes. Based on existing literature, we identify eight essential attributes that significantly influence the effectiveness of virtual influencers. We also propose an agenda for future research and present a conceptual model to elucidate virtual influencer dynamics. This research enhances our understanding of virtual influencers’ role and impact in contemporary brand promotion, providing valuable insights for scholars and practitioners.

ARTeFACTo 2024 Macao : 4th International Conference on Digital Creation in Arts, Media, and Technology | Creative Digital Intelligence | Conference Proceedings (2025)
ARTeFACTo is a transdisciplinary studies journal and conference centered around the concept of digital media and computer artifacts, which were the genesis of its name. It aims to give visibility to all digital media and technology-based artifacts, creators, or contributors from a transdisciplinary, humanistic, and holistic perspective of integration and composition. The main objective is constructing and disseminating knowledge through descriptions of artistic practice, authorship or co-authorship (including the narration and description of other works), and graphic data (images, diagrams, animations, drawings, sketches). The Journal is open to international contributions from all those studying digital media/computer artifacts, embracing their conceptualization, design, creative and research processes, computational implementation, exhibition and fruition, and role in today’s information and knowledge society. Also welcomed are articles fostering the establishment of the conceptual foundations of an artifact theory in the digital media world. Accepted articles shall be original (in compliance with the standards of conduct of the COPE – Code of Conduct and Good Practices) in Portuguese and English, with a mandatory abstract in English. The Conference has the same goals as the Journal but provides a specific floor for the concrete exhibition of artifacts along with their presentation and discussion. All submissions will be evaluated by peer review, including two advisors from the Scientific Council. All feedback will be sent to the authors, indicating their approval, refusal of publication, or requests for correction or recast. The authors will be notified of the publication once the entire selection process has been completed. ARTeFACTo is a joint project between Artech International and Universidade Aberta.

PERCEPTIONS OF CO-TEACHING AMONG PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS: A CASE STUDY OF AN INCLUSIVE SCHOOL IN MACAU - Marinho, Gomes Vasconcelos Pinto Ana Teresa (2025)
The study aimed to analyze teachers' perceptions of co-teaching within an inclusive educational environment, focusing on the challenges they face, the tools and resources available, and how these factors contribute to promoting inclusion. Conducted with 16 primary and secondary school teachers from an inclusive school in Macau, the research utilized in-depth semi- structured interviews to gather qualitative data on their experiences and perceptions. Overall, the findings highlight co-teaching as a powerful strategy in educational settings, particularly for enhancing students’ learning outcomes. Teachers reported positive views on co-teaching, recognizing its potential to promote collaboration and support diverse learners effectively. Nevertheless, cultural factors significantly influenced teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion. The study revealed that teachers varied cultural and professional backgrounds lead to different perspectives on inclusive practices. This complexity highlights the need for culturally responsive approaches in teacher training and professional development. Despite the positive perceptions of co-teaching, teachers encountered several challenges, namely inconsistent school practices, lack of institutional support from school administration and leadership and inadequate training opportunities. This study suggests that addressing these challenges is crucial for the successful implementation of co-teaching approaches, namely policy adjustments by stakeholders to support co-teaching initiatives, effective allocation of resources for teachers, professional development for school leaders to enhance their ability to foster a collaborative environment, and ongoing training focused on co-teaching methodologies for teachers.

Criminal Jurisdiction of Cross-Border Cybercrimes between Macao and China - Ieong, Weng Mui (2025)
With the rapid development of Internet technology and the acceleration of globalization, cross-border cybercrime has become a global challenge, and its complexity and severity are increasingly prominent. Cyberspace is unbounded, anonymous and real-time, which provides unprecedented convenience for criminals, enabling them to easily cross-national borders and commit a series of criminal acts that seriously endanger national security, social stability and citizens' rights and interests, including online fraud, online gambling, online money laundering and infringement of intellectual property rights. These crimes not only destroy the order of cyberspace, but also pose new challenges to the legal system and jurisdiction of the real world. As two closely linked economies, Macao and China enjoy the convenience brought by the Internet, but they are also deeply troubled by cross-border cybercrimes. Although the two places belong to the same sovereign country, there are significant differences in legal systems, judicial systems and law enforcement practice, which may lead to conflicts and differences in the jurisdiction, investigation, prosecution and trial of cases. These legal conflicts not only affect the fairness of cases, but also hinder the effective cooperation between Macao and China in combating cross-border cybercrimes, posing a serious threat to maintain social stability and protecting citizens' rights and interests in the two places. Therefore, it is not only of great theoretical significance, but also of far-reaching practical significance to study the criminal jurisdiction over cross-border cybercrimes between Macao and China. From a theoretical point of view, the criminal jurisdiction of cross-border cybercrime involves many disciplines such as constitutional law, criminal law, criminal procedure law, and also the application of the Basic Law of Macao, which is a complex research topic. With the continuous innovation of Internet technology, the applicability of the traditional criminal jurisdiction principle in cross-border cybercrimes is seriously challenged. How to re-examine and define the criminal jurisdiction of cross-border cybercrimes in the new era and how to coordinate the jurisdiction conflicts between different jurisdictions have become urgent problems in current legal research. From a practical point of view, cross-border cybercrime has seriously endangered the social stability and economic development of Macao and China. Criminals use the Internet to engage in cross-border gambling, cross-border fraud, spread network viruses and other criminal activities, which not only bring huge economic losses and psychological trauma to the victims, but also seriously undermine the social atmosphere and market order. Therefore, it is of great significance to strengthen the crackdown on cross-border cybercrimes and improve the criminal jurisdiction system of cross-border cybercrimes for maintaining the stability of the society and promoting healthy economic development in both places.

Study on User Acceptance of Resident Behavior for E-Government Services in Macao: Macao One Account Study - Kuok, Chi Hou (2025)
This dissertation investigates the key factors influencing citizens to adopt e-government services in Macao, focusing on the Macao One Account platform. Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework, the study examines factors such as Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, and Facilitating Conditions, with additional factors including Trust and Perceived Risk. This study is essential to provide a guideline for adopting e-government services effectively, helping policymakers and government entities optimize digital platforms for improved service delivery and user engagement. The research employed a quantitative methodology. The survey data was collected through an online survey in Google Forms distributed to Macao residents who use the Macao One Account platform. The responses of the 126 respondents were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods to identify trends and relationships between the key constructs. The findings reflect that performance expectations, effort expectations, trust, and facilitating conditions are the most influential drivers, with social influence playing a more moderate role. Perceived risk is low, indicating minimal concerns about security or privacy. Usability is an important driver, as most respondents find the platform easy to learn and use. Additionally, the users’ attitudes to the e-government platform could be affected by their trust in the government; reducing risk and increasing confidence can improve the platform's reliability to users. This study shows the need to improve the e-government platform by focusing on users. It includes making it easier to use, building trust with strong data protection, and making it accessible to all citizens. These results give ideas for adopting e-government in Macao and offer simple steps for policymakers to create more inclusive digital services.

EXPLORING THE DIFFICULTIES AND CHALLENGES FACED BY REGULAR PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN MACAO WHEN DEALING WITH INCLUSIVE STUDENTS IN THE CLASSROOM - Lam, Mei In (2025)
This study aims to explore the difficulties and challenges faced by regular primary school teachers in Macao when dealing with inclusive students in the classroom. As the concept of inclusive education deepens, the number of inclusive students in Macao has been increasing, but the growth of schools participating in inclusive education has been slow, posing more challenges for regular primary school teachers. This research adopts a mixed-method approach, combining classroom observations and in-depth interviews to comprehensively understand the issues teachers face. The study conducted structured observations of 15 lessons, covering 5 grade levels and 5 subjects, and carried out in-depth interviews with 7 teachers. The findings reveal: (1) Inclusive students generally experience difficulties in classroom participation, task completion, and independent learning; (2) Teachers generally lack sufficient professional knowledge and skills to effectively address the needs of inclusive students; (3) Schools lack resources and support, including adaptive curriculum arrangements and assessment methods for inclusive students; (4) There are contradictions between current educational policies and practical needs, such as the no-retention policy for grades 1-4, which may lead to missing the best intervention timing for inclusive students. Based on the research results, this paper proposes recommendations including strengthening teacher professional development, optimizing school resource allocation, improving educational policies, reinforcing early identification and intervention mechanisms, and promoting home-school cooperation. These findings and suggestions provide important references for policy-making and practical improvements in inclusive education in Macao. 本研究旨在探討澳門普通小學教師在課堂應對融合學生時所面臨的困難及挑戰。隨著融合教育理念的普及，澳門融合學生數量不斷增加，但參與融合教育的學校數量增長緩慢，使得普通小學教師面臨更多挑戰。本研究採用混合研究方法，結合課堂觀察和深度訪談，以全面了解教師面臨的問題。 研究對15節課進行了結構化觀察，涵蓋5個年級和5個學科，並對7位教師進行了深度訪談。研究發現：（一、）融合學生在課堂參與、任務完成和自主學習等方面普遍存在困難；（二、）教師普遍缺乏足夠的專業知識和技能來有效應對融合學生；（三、）學校資源和支援不足，缺乏針對融合學生的適應性課程安排和評核方式；（四、）現行教育政策與實際需求之間存在矛盾，如一至四年級不留級制度可能導致錯過融合學生最佳干預時機。 基於研究結果，本文提出了加強教師專業發展、優化學校資源配置、完善教育政策、強化早期識別和干預機制，以及促進家校合作等建議。這些發現和建議為澳門融合教育的政策制定和實踐改進提供了重要參考。

National Competitive Advantage and Ikea's Entry into the China Market - Riquito, Nikola Mullerova (2025)
Ikea’s entry into the China market and how its become successful in the foreign country

TEACHER’S PERCEPTIONS ON DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN RELATION TO THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC SITUATION IN MACAU EDUCATION - Chow, Ian U. (2025)
This dissertation investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teachers' perceptions of digital technology in education, particularly in the context of Macau. As traditional classrooms transitioned to online and blended learning environments in March 2020, the necessity for teachers to adapt and utilize technology became paramount. This study explores how future educators' experiences with e-learning during this crisis have shaped their views on the benefits and challenges of various instructional methods, including online, face-to-face, and blended learning. Utilizing a quantitative research methodology, data were collected from a sample of 30 primary teachers through structured surveys. Findings reveal a significant shift in attitudes towards digital tools, with many educators reporting increased confidence in their digital literacy and recognizing the importance of technology in modern education. The research further elucidates the factors influencing teachers' preparedness for digital instruction and the effectiveness of their internship experiences during the pandemic. The implications of this study underscore the critical role of teacher training programs in enhancing digital literacy and pedagogical skills, ensuring that future educators are well-equipped to navigate the complexities of contemporary educational environments. This dissertation contributes to the growing body of literature on technology integration in education and emphasizes the need for ongoing professional development to support teachers in leveraging digital tools effectively.

Bioprospecting Bioactive Peptides in Halobatrachus didactylus Body Mucus: From In Silico Insights to Essential In Vitro Validation - Cunha, Marta Fernandez; Coscueta, Ezequiel R.; Brassesco, María Emilia; Almada, Frederico; Gonçalves, David; Pintado, Maria Manuela (Marine Drugs, 2025)
Fish body mucus plays a protective role, especially in Halobatrachus didactylus, which inhabits intertidal zones vulnerable to anthropogenic contaminants. In silico predicted bioactive peptides were identified in its body mucus, namely, EDNSELGQETPTLR (HdKTLR), DPPNPKNL (HdKNL), PAPPPPPP (HdPPP), VYPFPGPLPN (HdVLPN), and PFPGPLPN (HdLPN). These peptides were studied in vitro for bioactivities and aggregation behavior under different ionic strengths and pH values. Size exclusion chromatography revealed significant peptide aggregation at 344 mM and 700 mM ionic strengths at pH 7.0, decreasing at pH 3.0 and pH 5.0. Although none exhibited antimicrobial properties, they inhibited Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formation. Notably, HdVLPN demonstrated potential antioxidant activity (ORAC: 1.560 mu mol TE/mu mol of peptide; ABTS: 1.755 mu mol TE/mu mol of peptide) as well as HdLPN (ORAC: 0.195 mu mol TE/mu mol of peptide; ABTS: 0.128 mu mol TE/mu mol of peptide). Antioxidant activity decreased at pH 5.0 and pH 3.0. Interactions between the peptides and mucus synergistically enhanced antioxidant effects. HdVLPN and HdLPN were non-toxic to Caco-2 and HaCaT cells at 100 mu g of peptide/mL. HdPPP showed potential antihypertensive and antidiabetic effects, with IC50 values of 557 mu g of peptide/mL for ACE inhibition and 1700 mu g of peptide/mL for alpha-glucosidase inhibition. This study highlights the importance of validating peptide bioactivities in vitro, considering their native environment (mucus), and bioprospecting novel bioactive molecules while promoting species conservation.

EXPLORING EXPERIENCES AND PERCEPTIONS OF THE HELPING RELATIONSHIPS IN MACAU - Choi Hoi, Ana (2025)
This study aims to become a conduit of a missing conversation wherein our front line help-givers can express their experiences. Through a series of semi-structured questions, and theoretical analyses, the themes regarding the Experience and Perception of Helping Relationships in Macau. Findings include difficulties and challenges that the helping profession in Macau encounters in different settings related to role ambiguity and public understanding of the profession. Stigma around a person considered to be a “problem” as well as stigma related to nomenclature of mental illnesses. Factors that enable and facilitate a helping relationship were identified. Trust, sincerity, listening and positive regard were mentioned. Due to Macau’s multi-cultural background, an enabling agent to facilitate a helping relationship was identified – language. As a qualitative enquiry medium for reflection and discovery, this study hopes to bring forward the unique experiences of eleven helping professionals with a spectrum of background to provide richness and newness to the current body of literature.

Exploring the Dual Edges of Macao's Economic Diversification A Study of the Strengths and Limitations of the Policy - Lei, Iat Cheong (2025)
This study aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the dual effects of Macao's economic diversification policy, with the intention of exploring its role in fostering economic sustainability. By thoroughly examining Macao's economy, which has traditionally been heavily reliant on the gaming and tourism industries, the study uncovers the implementation effects of the economic diversification policy, the challenges it encounters, and its potential influence on the economy's future trajectory. The research utilizes a mixed-methodology approach, integrating extensive quantitative data analysis with qualitative interviews to ensure the comprehensiveness and systematic nature of the findings. The study's outcomes underscore the beneficial effects of Macao's economic diversification policy in stimulating the growth of new industries, bolstering economic resilience, and attracting foreign investment. However, the policy also faces challenges such as skill shortages, uneven resource distribution, and the impact on traditional economic pillar industries. The research indicates that despite certain progress, Macao's economic diversification process still needs to overcome various internal and external obstacles. In response to the research findings, this study proposes a series of targeted recommendations, including strengthening the connection between education and industry, optimizing resource allocation strategies, stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship, and promoting the collaborative development of traditional and emerging industries. These suggestions aim to assist the Macao government in effectively addressing current challenges and laying a solid foundation for the long-term development of Macao's economy.

Study of the Regulatory Framework of Aviation Reform in the Macau Special Administrative Region: Analyzing the Balance between Protection and Liberalization - Melo, Loi da Silva e; Man, I. (2025)
This dissertation studies the regulatory framework of aviation reform in the Macau Special Administrative Region, focus on the balance between protecting local businesses and promoting market liberalization. The study explores how Macau, as a highly autonomous local administrative region in China with a relatively small economy, can effectively reform its aviation industry while safeguarding local interests in the face of open market competition. The importance of this study lies in its analysis of Macau's aviation sector reforms. As Macau seeks to diversify its economy and strengthen its position as a member of the Greater Bay Area initiative, the aviation industry presents both opportunities and challenges. This research contributes to the broader discussion of how small jurisdictions with special political status can participate in regional economic integration while maintaining their distinct advantages and protecting local interests. The research uses Doctrinal Legal Research and Comparative Legal Research methodologies, utilizing documentary analysis and comparative study methods. This research examines the legal framework of the aviation industry in Macau and the challenges it is currently facing. A comprehensive review of international aviation laws, bilateral air service agreements, and domestic regulations provides the foundation for analyze. The study also conducts a comparative analyze with Hong Kong's aviation framework, offering alternative regulatory approaches for a similar Special Administrative Region of China. Several interesting findings emerged from this research. First, the study identified a fundamental tension between Macau's stated open skies policy and its practical implementation, particularly in limitations of its current concession-based system and the underutilization of international traffic rights. Second, the analysis highlights how the current concession-based system has created a monopolistic market structure that hinders competition and innovation, exacerbated by outdated legislation. Third, the comparative analysis with Hong Kong highlights the importance of a clear legal framework and rules in balancing market liberalization with local industry protection, areas where Macau's current regulations show deficiencies. The concluding thought based on these findings is that Macau's aviation industry reform requires a careful approach that gradually introduces competitive elements while maintaining protections for local enterprises. The study suggests that successful reform will depend on establishing a comprehensive legal framework, implementing a flexible multi-tiered licensing system, enhancing regulatory oversight, and developing mechanisms for regional integration. These reforms must be tailored to Macau's unique circumstances, considering its small market size, political status, and strategic position within the Greater Bay Area.

Man in a Hurry: Murray MacLehose and Colonial Autonomy in Hong Kong Ray Yep. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2024. xi + 202 pp. HK$295.00 (hbk). ISBN 9898888842926 - Roberts, Priscilla (The China Quarterly, 2025)

Exploring freshwater soundscapes of tropical marshland habitats in Southeast Asia: insights into auditory sensory adaptation of wild Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens - Ramos, Andreia; Gonçalves, David; Vasconcelos, Raquel (PeerJ, 2025)
While soundscapes shape the structure and function of auditory systems over evolutionary timescales, there is limited information regarding the adaptation of wild fish populations to their natural acoustic environments. This is particularly relevant for freshwater ecosystems, which are extremely diverse and face escalating pressures from human activities and associated noise pollution. The Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens is one of the most important cultured species in the global ornamental fish market and is increasingly recognized as a model organism for genetics and behavioural studies. This air-breathing species (Anabantoidei), characterized by the presence of a suprabranchial labyrinth organ that enhances auditory sensitivity, is native to Southeast Asia and inhabits low flow freshwater ecosystems that are increasingly threatened due to habitat destruction and pollution. We characterized the underwater soundscape, along with various ecological parameters, across five marshland habitats of B. splendens, from lentic waterbodies to small canals near a lake in Chiang Rai province (Thailand). All habitats exhibited common traits of low dissolved oxygen and dense herbaceous vegetation. Soundscapes were relatively quiet with Sound Pressure Level (SPL) around 102-105 dB re 1 mu Pa and most spectral energy below 1,000 Hz. Sound recordings captured diverse biological sounds, including potential fish vocalizations, but primarily insect sounds. Hearing thresholds were determined using auditory evoked potential (AEP) recordings, revealing best hearing range within 100-400 Hz. Males exhibited lower hearing thresholds than females at 400 and 600 Hz. This low-frequency tuning highlights the potential susceptibility of B. splendens to anthropogenic noise activities. This study provides first characterization of the auditory sensitivity and natural soundscape of B. splendens, establishing an important ground for future hearing research in this species. The information provided on the auditory sensory adaptation of B. splendens emphasizes the importance of preserving quiet soundscapes from lentic freshwater ecosystems.

Adaptive Block Sparse Backtracking-Based Channel Estimation for Massive MIMO-OTFS Systems - Wang, Han; Chen, Qiulin; Wang, Xianpeng; Du, George; Li, Xingwang; Nallanathan, Arumugam (IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 2025)
—Orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation, combined with massive multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) technology, offers robust performance in high-mobility environments and high-user densities by capturing the full diversity of the wireless channel and effectively utilizing spatial multiplexing. This article introduces an adaptive block sparse backtracking (ABSB) algorithm designed to enhance channel estimation in OTFS with massive MIMO (massive MIMO-OTFS) systems. The proposed ABSB algorithm features dynamic block size adjustment based on the residual signal, improving its adaptability to the varying sparsity structure of the channel. Additionally, the algorithm extends the selection range of related block atoms to increase redundancy, reducing the risk of underfitting. Comprehensive simulation results demonstrate that the ABSB algorithm significantly outperforms traditional pilot-based methods in terms of channel estimation accuracy. It also surpasses the block orthogonal matching pursuit (BOMP) method as well as other classical compressed sensing methods. Specifically, the ABSB algorithm achieves up to a 20% reduction in estimation error compared to some of these traditional methods. The enhanced adaptability and robustness of the ABSB algorithm make it a promising solution for channel estimation in massive MIMO-OTFS systems, paving the way for more reliable and efficient next-generation wireless communications.

The Effectiveness of Dance Movement Therapy on Emotion Identification of Facial Expressions in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: An EEG study - Chui, Ngou Cheng (2025)
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is receiving growing attention as the number of diagnoses continues to rise. However, there is a lack of resources focused on investigating interventions that could improve the quality of life for individuals with ASD. People with ASD often encounter difficulties in social interactions, and their challenges in recognizing emotions further hinder their ability to understand social cues and build relationships. This emotional recognition deficit is thought to be influenced by observed brain abnormalities in the frontal lobe for people with ASD. Given these significant factors, it is crucial to explore potential interventions. The present study utilized Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) as an intervention for individuals with ASD and assessed their emotional recognition abilities, complemented by EEG recordings to explore the efficacy of DMT. A total of 12 one-hour DMT sessions were conducted with the experimental group (n=6), while the control group (n=5) received no intervention. Participants were presented with the Revised Version of the Averaged Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (AKDEF), which included 36 images (excluding neutral images and full left and right profiles) at four intervals: pre-therapy (T1), after the 4th session (T2), after the 8th session (T3), and post-therapy (T4), while task for control group was present in two-week intervals. EEG band power for alpha and beta frequencies in the frontal lobe was recorded using the EMOTIV EPOC X at the AF4, F4, F3, and AF3 sites. Results indicated that the experimental group demonstrated a significant improvement in accuracy on emotional recognition tasks compared to the control group, although no significant differences were found between trials. In contrast, EEG signal analysis revealed significant differences between trials in both groups. A comparison of the correlation between emotional recognition tasks and EEG band power highlighted intriguing contrasts, suggesting potential insights into the learning effects. The experimental group exhibited peak performance at T2, followed by a decline at T3 and T4; while the control group showed a decrease at T2, an increase at T3, and another decrease at T4. It is proposed that the learning observed in the experimental group at T2, following four sessions of DMT, enhanced their ability to perform the emotional recognition tasks, resulting a subsequent decrease in alpha and beta power at T3 and T4, suggesting that less effort was needed during image perception and. In contrast, the control group struggled to learn, which may indicate that learning was not occurred for the controls. This relationship has not been explicitly explored in current research, and further investigations are recommended. Nonetheless, the findings indicate that DMT is effective to some extent in enhancing emotional recognition skills among individuals with ASD, suggesting its potential utility for social services to consider in their offerings. Future studies would benefit from incorporating a larger sample size or employing clinical EEG recording devices to further refine the results.

Consumer Responses to Warwashing Amidst the Russia-Ukraine Conflict: A Comparative Study of Portuguese and Danish Perspectives - Silva, Susana C. (2025)

Heavy metal accumulation in paddy plants and health risks: Insights from southern peninsular Malaysia and global research trends - Teoh, Yan Ji; Cheng, Wan Hee; Wider, Walton; Krishnan, Kumar; Yap, Chee Kong; Chen, Qijin; Jiang, Leilei; Lei, Thomas; Tanee, Tawatchai; Sudmoon, Runglawan; Lee, Shiou Yih (Asian Journal of Agriculture and Biology, 2025)
This current study assessed the toxicity of selected heavy metals in paddy and sediments of non-major production sites in Southern Peninsular Malaysia, complemented by bibliometric analysis of research trends and health implications of rice contamination. Paddy (grains, stems, roots) and soil samples were collected from seven selected sites in the Southern parts of Peninsular Malaysia and analyzed for their heavy metals content. The health risk assessments were conducted based on estimated daily intake, and the Web of Science database was used for bibliometric analysis. The results indicated elevated levels of manganese, Mn (0.4 ± 0.07), especially in the roots, compared to other heavy metals. Generally, the heavy metal levels in paddy grains were below FAO/WHO’s tolerable daily intake levels, indicating minimal non-carcinogenic risks to both adults and children. The bibliometric analysis indicated a significant increase in related publications, reflecting growing academic interest. This study highlights the potential of non-major sites to produce rice with lower contamination levels, provides insights into research trends, and identifies future investigation areas, especially for major production sites and post-COVID-19 periods. Therefore, this study offers a robust scientific context, identifies research gaps, benchmarks findings, and guides future research directions, ensuring an in-depth perception on heavy metal contamination and its health risks. © This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

FROM ARTISANAL TRADITIONS TO THE DIGITAL EXPERIENCE: REIMAGINING TEXTILES TRADITIONS THROUGH ARTISTIC CREATION AND IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES - Pereira, S. (Pereira; Fernandes-Marcos, Adérito (2025)
This article explores the intersection between traditional textile craftsmanship and digital innovation through the Hands series, a project that integrates tangible and virtual artefacts. Grounded in post-digital aesthetics, Hands examines the rematerialisation of textile heritage by combining traditional techniques with immersive technologies such as augmented reality and digital modelling. The project questions the physical and digital dichotomy, proposing new ways of experiencing textile art beyond its material constraints. By incorporating multisensory elements and interactivity, Hands redefines the engagement between spectators and artefacts, expanding the narrative potential of textile traditions in contemporary artistic practice. This study critically analyses how post-digital textile aesthetics can serve as a bridge between preservation and innovation, fostering an enriched sensory experience. The discussion highlights the challenges and opportunities of integrating emerging technologies into artistic processes, reinforcing the relevance of sensory engagement in digital art contexts.

Study on the Implementation of Low-Carbon Policies in Macao - Wong, Mio San (2025)
As a special administrative region of China, Macau, despite its small size and limited resources, has been actively promoting low-carbon development to address the global climate change challenge. In recent years, Macao has provided important support for achieving the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality by formulating a series of policies, such as energy management, promotion of green buildings and optimization of waste treatment. However, despite the clarity of the policy framework, its actual implementation and effectiveness still need to be systematically reviewed. This study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, interviews and questionnaires to gain an in-depth understanding of the social acceptance and public participation of policies, and quantitative data to analyze the implementation effects of policies, with a view to revealing the advantages and disadvantages of low-carbon policies in Macao. The research results will systematically evaluate the effectiveness of low-carbon policies in Macao from multiple levels. On the one hand, quantitative data will provide a clear empirical basis for the progress of low-carbon policies; On the other hand, qualitative research will reveal key social and technological barriers to policy implementation, helping to understand the impact of public attitudes and behaviour on policy effectiveness. These results can not only provide reference for Macao's future low-carbon policy adjustment, but also provide experience for other similar cities to cope with similar challenges in low-carbon development. The importance of this study lies in its dual contribution to academia and practice. At the academic level, this study has enriched the theoretical research on low-carbon city development, especially the special challenges of carbon emission reduction in resource-limited cities. At the practical level, the results of this study can directly provide policy makers with specific suggestions for improving low-carbon policies, such as resource allocation, technology introduction and public awareness. Through these analyses, the study hopes to provide a practical roadmap for Macao to achieve its goal of carbon neutrality, as well as a valuable reference for the low-carbon development of similar cities around the world.

Counterfeit Opportunities in Luxury Fashion - Gasulla-Tortajada, Elena; Duarte, Paulo; Silva, Susana C. (2025)
Counterfeiting in luxury fashion presents unique opportunities for brands. While it negatively impacts them by diluting exclusivity, it also affects consumer psychology in unexpectedly positive ways. Authentic consumers may feel pride in being copied, enhancing their perceived status by owning something only a few can possess. Additionally, counterfeits act as free marketing tools, increasing brand awareness on a scale not otherwise accessible, especially for niche or inconspicuous luxury brands. Moreover, counterfeiting offers an opportunity for differentiation through sustainability. Counterfeiters, focused on low-cost production, often cannot commit to sustainable and ethical standards. Luxury brands can leverage this by emphasizing their commitment to sustainability, distancing themselves from counterfeits. Strategically, this allows brands to attract consumers who previously purchased counterfeits, converting them into loyal customers of authentic products. This chapter explores how luxury fashion brands can leverage these dual dynamics to strengthen their market position.

探討澳門普小教師在課堂應對融合學生時所面對的困難及挑戰 - Lam, Mei In (2025)
This study aims to explore the difficulties and challenges faced by regular primary school teachers in Macao when dealing with inclusive students in the classroom. As the concept of inclusive education deepens, the number of inclusive students in Macao has been increasing, but the growth of schools participating in inclusive education has been slow, posing more challenges for regular primary school teachers. This research adopts a mixed-method approach, combining classroom observations and in-depth interviews to comprehensively understand the issues teachers face. The study conducted structured observations of 15 lessons, covering 5 grade levels and 5 subjects, and carried out in-depth interviews with 7 teachers. The findings reveal: (1) Inclusive students generally experience difficulties in classroom participation, task completion, and independent learning; (2) Teachers generally lack sufficient professional knowledge and skills to effectively address the needs of inclusive students; (3) Schools lack resources and support, including adaptive curriculum arrangements and assessment methods for inclusive students; (4) There are contradictions between current educational policies and practical needs, such as the no-retention policy for grades 1-4, which may lead to missing the best intervention timing for inclusive students. Based on the research results, this paper proposes recommendations including strengthening teacher professional development, optimizing school resource allocation, improving educational policies, reinforcing early identification and intervention mechanisms, and promoting home-school cooperation. These findings and suggestions provide important references for policy-making and practical improvements in inclusive education in Macao. 本研究旨在探討澳門普通小學教師在課堂應對融合學生時所面臨的困難及挑戰。隨著融合教育理念的普及，澳門融合學生數量不斷增加，但參與融合教育的學校數量增長緩慢，使得普通小學教師面臨更多挑戰。本研究採用混合研究方法，結合課堂觀察和深度訪談，以全面了解教師面臨的問題。 研究對15節課進行了結構化觀察，涵蓋5個年級和5個學科，並對7位教師進行了深度訪談。研究發現：（一、）融合學生在課堂參與、任務完成和自主學習等方面普遍存在困難；（二、）教師普遍缺乏足夠的專業知識和技能來有效應對融合學生；（三、）學校資源和支援不足，缺乏針對融合學生的適應性課程安排和評核方式；（四、）現行教育政策與實際需求之間存在矛盾，如一至四年級不留級制度可能導致錯過融合學生最佳干預時機。 基於研究結果，本文提出了加強教師專業發展、優化學校資源配置、完善教育政策、強化早期識別和干預機制，以及促進家校合作等建議。這些發現和建議為澳門融合教育的政策制定和實踐改進提供了重要參考。 關鍵詞：融合教育，普通小學教師，融合學生，澳門

Interdisciplinary Teaching Design and Practice Research Combining Mathematics and Programming: A Case Study of Fourth Grade Mathematics Topics - Lao, Si Man (2025)
本研究旨在探討跨學科教學方法在數學教育中的應用效果,特別聚焦於編 程與數學課程的整合。探討結合數學與編程的跨學科教學設計對小學四年級學 生的影響,旨在提升學生的數學和編程學習的成效。研究採用 5E 教學模式, 將 Scratch 3.0 編程活動融入數學課程,並進行實驗以評估其成效。研究對象為 澳門一所學校兩個四年級普通班級(A 班和 B 班)的學生,分為實驗組和對照 組。研究採用交叉設計,進行兩次實驗:實驗一以 A 班為實驗組、B 班為對照 組,進行《旋轉對稱圖形》單元的跨學科教學;實驗二則互換角色,以 B 班為 實驗組、A 班為對照組,進行《可以被 3 整除的數》單元的跨學科教學。研究 使用數學單元測驗卷、數學學習動機量表,以及學生的數學測驗成績和編程學 習動機量表作為評估工具。 研究結果顯示: 一、數學成績提升:實驗組學生的數學成績顯著高於對照組。 二、數學學習動機增強:實驗組學生在數學興趣和自我效能感方面均有顯 著提升。 三、編程學習動機提升:實驗組在編程社會價值、感知編程效用、編程興 趣和自我效能方面均有顯著的提升。 結論指出,實施編程活動融入數學科的跨學科教學,提升學生的數學成 績、數學和編程的學習動機。建議應推廣此類跨學科教學,並加強教師培訓及 教學資源開發,以提高學生的學習動機和成效。未來研究可擴大樣本範圍,探 討長期效果及多學科整合的影響。 This study investigates the impact of interdisciplinary teaching design integrating mathematics and programming on fourth-grade elementary school students, aiming to enhance their learning outcomes in both subjects. The research employs the 5E instructional model, incorporating Scratch 3.0 programming into the mathematics curriculum, and conducts experiments to evaluate its effectiveness. The study subjects are two regular fourth-grade classes (Class A and Class B) from a school in Macau, divided into experimental and control groups. A crossover design is used, conducting two experiments: in Experiment 1, Class A serves as the experimental group and Class B as the control group for the "Rotational Symmetry Figures" unit; in Experiment 2, the roles are reversed, with Class B as the experimental group and Class A as the control group for the "Numbers Divisible by 3" unit. The study uses mathematics learning motivation and programming learning motivation scales as assessment tools. Major research findings are as follows: 1. Improved mathematics performance: The experimental group's mathematics scores were significantly higher than the control group's. 2. Enhanced mathematics learning motivation: The experimental group showed significant improvements in mathematics interest and self-efficacy. 3. Increased programming learning motivation: The experimental group demonstrated significant improvements in programming social value, perceived programming utility, programming interest, and self-efficacy. The conclusion indicates that the 5E instructional model effectively promotes the integration of mathematics and programming, enhancing students' learning outcomes. It is recommended that educational institutions promote such interdisciplinary teaching and strengthen teacher training and teaching resource development to improve students' learning motivation and effectiveness. Future research could expand the sample size to explore long-term effects and the impact of multi-disciplinary integration.

The Impact of the Understanding of Reproductive Rights on Career Planning and Gender Equality Attitudes Among Macau Residents Aged 25-34 - Lou, Weng Si (2025)
本研究旨在探討澳門 25-34 歲年齡層個人對生育權的認知與理解,以及這 些觀點對其生涯規劃和性別平等態度的影響。澳門作為一個快速發展的特別行 政區,關於生殖權的討論仍然較為缺乏,這使得本研究特別重要,因為它有助 於填補這一領域的知識空白。本研究採用質性研究方法,通過有目的抽樣,對 20 名年齡在 25-34 歲之間的澳門居民進行半結構訪談,並以詮釋學方法分析數 據。 研究發現如下: 1. 男性參與者更關注個人角色和責任,並反思社會期望和文化價值觀。 2. 女性參與者則更關注社會期望與個人自主權的衝突,並關心性別平等和 個人權利。 這些差異突顯了性別角色和社會責任在男性和女性身上的不同詮釋,並反映 了社會、文化和個人因素對於性別觀點的塑造作用。研究結果對於推動澳門的 性別平等政策和生殖權利保障具有重要意義,並為後續研究提供了實證基礎。 This study aims to explore the awareness and understanding of reproductive rights among individuals aged 25-34 in Macau, as well as the impact of these views on their career planning and attitudes towards gender equality. As a rapidly developing Special Administrative Region, Macau still lacks extensive discussion on reproductive rights, making this research particularly important as it helps to fill the knowledge gap in this field. The study employs qualitative research methods, using purposive sampling to conduct semi-structured interviews with 20 Macau residents aged 25-34, and analyzes the data using hermeneutic methods. The findings of the study are as follows: 1. Male participants are more concerned with individual roles and responsibilities, and they reflect on societal expectations and cultural values. 2. Female participants are more focused on the conflict between societal expectations and personal autonomy, and they are concerned with gender equality and individual rights. These differences highlight the varying interpretations of gender roles and social responsibilities between men and women and reflect the influence of social, cultural, and personal factors on gender perspectives. The research results have significant implications for promoting gender equality policies and reproductive rights protection in Macau, providing an empirical basis for subsequent studies.

Oligopolistic Pricing Strategies in the Hospitality Industry of Macao During COVID-19 [Conference presentation]. - Lei, Weng Chi (Florence) (2020)

REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS: TOOL TO PROMOTE CLIMATE – SMART AND SUSTAINABLE TRADE - Toshevska-Trpchevska, Katerina; Lei, Weng Chi (Florence); Kocev, Ljuben; Tonovska, Jasna (InterEULawEast: Journal for the International and European Law, Economics and Market Integrations, 2024)

As Fontes e as Causas da Fraca Protecção das Comunidades Locais no Ecossistema dos Projectos de Investimento Sobre Recursos Naturais. - Rafael, Angelo (2024)

Law and Development Research Network - MACHVA, ALMEIDA ZACARIAS; Rafael, Angelo; MAY, YDUAN DE OLIVEIRA (2025)
Este livro é resultado do I International Meeting da Law and Development Research Network (LDRN) ou Rede de Pesquisa Direito e Desenvolvimento. As temáticas do encontro internacional foram os objetivos do desenvolvimento sustentável, o desenvolvimento e a inclusão socioeconômicos. O evento foi organizado pelo grupo de pesquisa Direito e Sociedade Econômica (DISE), que completa uma década, orientado à pesquisa e à solução de problemas socioeconômicos sob a ótica jurídica. Está vinculado ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito da Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense (PPGD/UNESC), localizado em Criciúma, Santa Catarina, Brasil. O evento contou com o apoio institucional da Universidade São José (USJ, Macau-China), da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM, Moçambique) e da UNESC. Participaram do comitê científico Prof. Dr. Almeida Zacarias Machava (UEM); Prof. Dr. Ângelo Patrício Rafael (USJ); Prof. Dra. Camila Villard Duran, ESSCA School of Management, França; Prof. Dr. Fernando de Magalhães Furlan, UNICEPLAC, Brasil; e Prof. Dra. Rúbia Carneiro Neves, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brasil. A coordenação-geral coube ao Prof. Dr. Yduan de Oliveira May, UNESC, coordenador do DISE e da LDRN. Cumprimenta-se o Prof. Dr. Ansoumane Douty Diakité (USJ) pelo prefácio, no qual discorre com generosidade suas impressões das atividades da LDRN e a ordenação temática deste livro.

Personal Story and Public Identity as Axis of Value Response: Lessons on Literacy and Morality from John Henry Newman (1801-1890) and Ma Xiangbo (1840-1939) - Law, Cyril (2025)
In the hype of multi-/inter-disciplinarity, is the voi-ce or voices of theistic religions and the attendant philosophical moral awareness (etymologically bet-ter rendered as conscientização in Portuguese) still meant to be heard? Can classical tales of saints and sinners remain part of the canon of public literacy? How existential is the threat of “organised religions” or otherwise established ecclesiastical structures posed to society when they are accused of attempting to fight proxy crusades against humanitarian enlightenment under the guise of religious literature? Are tenets pro-pounded by scholars like Gavin D’Costa in Theology and the Public Square (2005) to be politely bracketed when discussing perennial values? Values that respon-sible media strive to propagate, particularly the value of human dignity eulogised by the life exemplars of great figures in times of existential crises of whatever magnitude. With these questions in mind, this article will hearken back to the stories of two “grandees” in the Roman Catholic tradition who left their marks on the pages of the development of modern English and Chinese literacy. Newman’s Apologia pro vita sua(1865) is just but one of the tactical devises for his defense of creedal integrity, while Ma Xiangbo engaged in catholicising the Chinese national ethos through educational literacy for close to half a century. We shall phenomenologically draw inspirations from their parallel vision and experience on what lends power to the medium of words and deeds in shaping informed public conscience in regard to the core values of truth, good, and beauty.

Assessing critical thinking disposition through text analysis in traditional Chinese: An empirical study of tourism and gaming undergraduates in Macao - Lam, Carlos Siu; Liu, Yong; Zhang, Yinghong; Wu, Hao (Frontiers in Education, 2025)
Critical thinking disposition (CTD) is increasingly recognized as an important trait in education, reflecting the inclination and habits necessary for addressing complex challenges in today's world. This study assessed the CTD of students enrolled in a tourism and gaming management programme, focusing on two key dimensions: Analyticity and Open-Mindedness. This study was conducted at a university in Macao and involved 65 participants. The students were presented with an article relevant to their major, written in Traditional Chinese, and were asked to provide their opinions on each statement in the article. A rubric was designed to analyze their responses and assess their Analyticity and Open-Mindedness within the CTD framework. The results demonstrated high reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.91) and revealed an association between Analyticity and Open-Mindedness. Using Python programming, the study analyzed the frequency of parts of speech (POS) in students' responses, introducing a novel approach for evaluating CTD in Traditional Chinese. Regression modeling showed that parallel and adversative conjunctions significantly predicted Analyticity, while the frequency of conjunction use varied across Open-Mindedness classifications. These findings highlighted an innovative and objective method for assessing CTD through text analysis, offering promising applications for educational research in Traditional Chinese-speaking contexts.

MOND formulation emerging from general relativity - Arraut, Ivan (Modern Physics Letters A, 2025)
In this paper, we demonstrate that the effects of Dark-Matter, partially in the way proposed by the Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), emerge naturally from the standard theory of General Relativity (without any modification) under a new proposed vacuum solution. There is a family of metric solutions able to reproduce the galaxy rotation curves and the relevant scales where the Dark-Matter effects are supposed to appear in a galaxy. This family of solutions deviate from the standard spherically symmetric solution. The proposed formulation, being relativistic by nature, opens the scenario where we can test the relativistic effects attributed to Dark-Matter and having relevance in cosmology. Among such effects, we have gravitational lensing, effects on the CMB scenario and effects on the formation of galaxies.

Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation in ASEAN Countries - Lei, Weng Chi (Florence); Toshevska-Trpchevska, Katerina; Stojkoski, Viktor (Economics and Finance Readings, 2025)
The pandemic exposed weaknesses in the global trade system, making it clear that climate actions are the priority in the recovery. International organizations are urging countries to seize this opportunity and integrate climate-friendly trade and investment rules to promote sustainable development. Trade is recognized as a powerful tool for tackling climate change, offering economies ways to both reduce emissions and adapt to environmental changes. In this paper, we investigate the digital and sustainable trade facilitation measures implemented in ASEAN countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. We use a well-established trade model, the gravity model, to assess the impacts of trade facilitation efforts, particularly those that leverage digital technologies and promote sustainability. The data for this analysis comes from the UN Global Survey on digital and sustainable trade facilitation in 2017, 2019, and 2021. The results show that trade facilitation measures are crucial to increasing trade among the ASEAN countries. Measures of transparency of trade procedures, trade formality alleviation, and cross-border paperless trade have significant positive impacts on bilateral trade between ASEAN countries.

Unlocking Sustainable Talents 培育永續人才：如何共同建設更好的生態，以滿足日益增長的金齡人士 - Lei, Weng Chi (Florence) (2025)
本書由36 位不同界別的領袖、專家和學者，分享與人口老齡化相關的精闢觀察與洞見，探索創新永續的生活和經濟模式，包括相關的政策、黃金時代經濟的發展、中國安老服務的新視野、醫康養老新發展、智齡科技的應用、永續人才和社區發展等議題，為業界提供參考，亦為45 歲以上的黃金一代應對未來退休生活提供啟發。 「我們的生活越來越受創新技術的影響，我們的社會也更加重視綠色生活和可持續發展。科技和綠色生活方式必須融入智齡產品和服務中。」 —— 陳茂波 香港特別行政區財政司司長 「我們的共同目標是在老齡化世界中不讓任何人掉隊。」 —— 威廉•史密斯博士 聯合國紐約總部老年事務非政府組織委員會主席 「我們深信人口老化為全球帶來嶄新的機遇。中、老年人是唯一正在不斷增長的人力資源，也是創新產品和服務的龐大消費群體。」 —— 容蔡美碧 黃金時代基金會創會主席

The Solution to Hardy’s Paradox - Arraut, Ivan (Condensed Matter, 2025)
By using both the weak-value formulation as well as the standard probabilistic approach, we analyze Hardy’s experiment introducing a complex and dimensionless parameter (ϵ), which eliminates the assumption of complete annihilation when both the electron and the positron departing from a common origin cross the intersection point P. We then find that the paradox does not exist for all the possible values taken by the parameter. The apparent paradox only appears when ϵ=1, which is just a singular value. In this paper we demonstrate that this particular value is forbidden inside the scenario proposed by the experiment.

Electrifying the Skies: Battery Electric Aircraft and Their Role in Advancing Regional Integration - Lampo, Alessandro (INTI Journal, 2025)
The aviation sector is transforming as electrification emerges as a promising technology. Adopting battery-electric aircraft (BEA) - aircraft that solely rely on rechargeable onboard batteries - is a sustainable alternative to conventional aviation that could change short-haul regional travel habits for business and leisure travellers. This study examines the factors influencing individuals’ public acceptance in China's Greater Bay Area (GBA) context. Given the limited research, a qualitative methodology grounded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) examines the underlying factors influencing behavioural intentions (attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and perceived risks). The findings indicate that participants recognise the technology's environmental benefits and potential to enhance regional connectivity; however, they still have concerns about safety, infrastructure, and operations. The respondents’ perceived ease of access, information available, and endorsements from reputable sources also have essential roles in influencing broader acceptance. Addressing these factors with appropriate communication efforts is vital for promoting trust and accelerating technology acceptance and use. Although exploratory, this study offers insights to develop strategies for infrastructure readiness, build public confidence, and endorse sustainable aviation. The research is conducted within the GBA context. Still, the findings also apply to regions with fragmented geographies or developing transportation networks, thus contributing to global environmental sustainability and advancing regional integration goals.

Assessing critical thinking disposition through text analysis in traditional Chinese: An empirical study of tourism and gaming undergraduates in Macao - Siu Lam, Carlos; Liu, Yong; Zhang, Yinghong; Wu, Hao (Frontiers in Education, 2025)
Critical thinking disposition (CTD) is increasingly recognized as an important trait in education, reflecting the inclination and habits necessary for addressing complex challenges in today's world. This study assessed the CTD of students enrolled in a tourism and gaming management programme, focusing on two key dimensions: Analyticity and Open-Mindedness. This study was conducted at a university in Macao and involved 65 participants. The students were presented with an article relevant to their major, written in Traditional Chinese, and were asked to provide their opinions on each statement in the article. A rubric was designed to analyze their responses and assess their Analyticity and Open-Mindedness within the CTD framework. The results demonstrated high reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.91) and revealed an association between Analyticity and Open-Mindedness. Using Python programming, the study analyzed the frequency of parts of speech (POS) in students' responses, introducing a novel approach for evaluating CTD in Traditional Chinese. Regression modeling showed that parallel and adversative conjunctions significantly predicted Analyticity, while the frequency of conjunction use varied across Open-Mindedness classifications. These findings highlighted an innovative and objective method for assessing CTD through text analysis, offering promising applications for educational research in Traditional Chinese-speaking contexts.
Keywords: critical thinking disposition; educational assessment; text analysis; tourism and gaming education; traditional Chinese

The neutrino mass: A triangular formulation - Arraut, Ivan (arXiv.org, 2024)
We demonstrate that the flavor oscillation when a neutrino travels through spacetime, is equivalent to permanent changes on the vacuum state condition perceived by the same particle. This can be visualized via the Quantum Yang Baxter equations (QYBE). From this perspective, the neutrino never breaks the symmetry of the ground state because it never selects an specific vacuum condition. Then naturally the Higgs mechanism cannot be the generator of the neutrino masses. The constraints emerging from this model predict a normal mass hierarchy and some specific values for the mass eigenvalues once we fix the mixing angles. Interestingly, the model suggests that the sum of the mix angles is equal to $\pi/2$.

Neutrino oscillations from the perspective of the quantum Yang-Baxter equations - Arraut, Ivan; Arrieta-Diaz, Enrique (arXiv, 2024)
The origins of neutrino masses is one of the biggest mysteries in modern physics since they are beyond the realm of the Standard Model. As massive particles, neutrinos undergo flavor oscillations throughout their propagation. In this paper we show that when a neutrino oscillates from a flavor state {\alpha} to a flavor state \b{eta}, it follows three possible paths consistent with the Quantum Yang- Baxter Equations. These trajectories define the transition probabilities of the oscillations. Moreover, we define a probability matrix for flavor transitions consistent with the Quantum Yang-Baxter Equations, and estimate the values of the three neutrino mass eigenvalues within the framework of the triangular formulation.
arXiv:2409.00560 [hep-ph]
Keywords: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Non-thermodynamic Black Hole Evaporation - Arraut, Ivan; Mehta, Abhishek Kumar (arXiv, 2025)
In this paper, we investigate black hole evaporation from the path integral perspective. We demonstrate that besides the standard thermodynamic modes, there are non-thermodynamic modes of black hole evaporation which contain remnants. The pure thermodynamic process is recovered when the Gauss-Bonnet action is involved. This scenario opens a new window for analyzing the process of black-hole evaporation.
arXiv:2505.06859 [hep-th]
Keywords: High Energy Physics - Theory

Consumers' Perception of Electric Aviation in Macao: An Exploratory Study Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior - Lampo, Alessandro (Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Industrial and Business Engineering, 2024)
Battery Electric Aircraft (BEA) technology is gaining attention due to the potential to reduce carbon emissions and noise pollution, contributing to global environmental sustainability. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this paper explores the determinants of attitude, social norm, behavioural control, and perceived risks related to the intention of Macau residents to use electric aeroplanes within the Greater Bay Area (GBA). This research uses a quantitative approach. Data is collected through structured surveys distributed to potential adopters. To assess the relationships between the determinants in our model, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is employed. The findings reveal that a favourable attitude and perceived behavioural control positively influence individuals’ intentions to adopt electric aeroplanes. However, perceived risks strongly impact adoption intentions, suggesting that addressing safety and reliability concerns is essential for promoting the technology within the region. The implications of this research extend beyond academic interests, as Macau’s unique position within the GBA offers the opportunity for electric aeroplanes’ adoption. Further, the reduced carbon emissions and noise pollution align with the city’s objectives and create a harmonious balance between economic prosperity and environmental preservation for future generations. This study offers important insights for integrating advanced computing technologies into BEA systems to enhance electric aeroplanes’ operational efficiency and safety to support their adoption. It also provides a path for policymakers and industry stakeholders toward sustainable economic development and integration of Macau within the GBA.

Solving the dark energy problem via symmetry constraints - Arraut, Ivan (The European Physical Journal C, 2025)
We derive the vacuum energy from the zero-point quantum fluctuations after imposing a natural constraint emerging from the rotational symmetry inside the de-Sitter metric. The constraint imposes a maximum azimuthal angle for each frequency mode emerging from the vacuum. In this way, the shorter the wavelength of the mode, the larger will be its suppression. The same result is derived subsequently by using the Friedmann–Lemaitre–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) metric. We then make a physical interpretation of the physical effects from the perspective of pair creations over the vacuum, where the mentioned constraint emerges, limiting then the maximum angle which each pair generated from the vacuum can rotate with respect to each other during their short existence.

Macau Cultural Tapestry: Unravelling a City’s Visual Identity Through Its Patterns and Textures—Digital Archive and Mapping - Martins, Filipa; Seck, Mamadú; Pinheiro, Francisco; Estadieu, Gerald (Springer Series in Design and Innovation, 2024)
ISBN: 9783031761553

Using Machine Learning CART Decision Trees for Predicting the Causes of Delays in Projects from the Construction Industry - Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Chun, Fung Ka; Riccelli, Bruno (2024)
Construction projects are complex endeavours, with potential obstacles that can cause delays which can have particularly profound implications potentially impacting on company's financial health, business continuity and reputation. It is becoming increasingly recognised that delays are context-specific and multifaceted, requiring more industry-oriented perceptions. This work proposes the exploratory use of Machine Learning based on Classification and Regression Trees (CART) Decision Trees (DT) to assess the predictive analysis of these approaches, considering surveys (primary data) collected from 100 specialists with different backgrounds and experiences in the construction industry. Survey responses are discussed, followed by the CART DTs, which are used as predictor for clarifying underneath relationship among different variables in a project environment. The major issue presented is related to Project Design, with "The firm is not allowed to apply for an extension of contract period", with two possible predictors, firstly, as the main factor it is found "Mistakes, inconsistencies, and ambiguities in specification and drawing", while other aspect highlights "Poor site supervision and management by the contractor". The results indicate that the correct use of Artificial Intelligence techniques with relevant data are potential tools to support the analysis of scenarios and avoidance of project delays in Project Management.

The Future of Digital Banking in Macau: Developing a Theoretical Model of User Willingness for Digital Banking Services - Lin, Jing-ying; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Neto, Andreia (Proceedings of the 2024 15th International Conference on E-business, Management and Economics, 2024)
In the wave of digital transformation, Chinese banks have prioritized digital banking services as key strategic goals, aiming to revolutionize the mobile banking experience. This study aims to assess the factors influencing the willingness to use the various financial and contextual services offered through digital banking. Specifically, it is proposed a model based on users' perceptions of mobile banking scenarios and examines how the development of digital banking services influences users' willingness to use them. The study involved qualitative in-depth interviews with 12 mobile banking users, with the interview content analyzed using Nvivo qualitative analysis software. The data analysis identified 9 core coding categories: Financial Professionalism, Security, Marketing Stimulation, Innovative Products, Use Experience, Strong Relationship, Trust, Perceived Usefulness, and Willingness to Use. These categories were further refined to construct a theoretical model of user willingness in digital banking services, drawing from the optimized Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The findings provide valuable insights for the banking industry in Macau, aiding in understanding customer needs and supporting the positive development of mobile finance and contextual digital banking services in the region.

Stock market prediction using artificial intelligence: A systematic review of systematic reviews - Lin, Chin Yang; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre (Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 2024)
There are many systematic reviews on predicting stock. However, each reveals a different portion of the hybrid AI analysis and stock prediction puzzle. The principal objective of this research was to systematically review the existing systematic reviews on Artificial Intelligence (AI) models applied to stock market prediction to provide valuable inputs for the development of strategies in stock market investments. Keywords that would fall under the broad headings of AI and stock prediction were looked up in Scopus and Web of Science databases. We screened 69 titles and read 43 systematic reviews, including more than 379 studies, before retaining 10 for the final dataset. This work revealed that support vector machines (SVM), long short-term memory (LSTM), and artificial neural networks (ANN) are the most popular AI methods for stock market prediction. In addition, the time series of historical closing stock prices are the most commonly used data source, and accuracy is the most employed performance metric of the predictive models. We also identified several research gaps and directions for future studies. Specifically, we indicate that future research could benefit from exploring different data sources and combinations, while we also suggest comparing different AI methods and techniques, as each may have specific advantages and applicable scenarios. Lastly, we recommend better evaluating different prediction indicators and standards to reflect prediction models’ actual value and impact.

Predicting consumer ad preferences: Leveraging a machinelearning approach for EDA and FEA neurophysiologicalmetrics - Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Neto, Andreia C.; Silva, Susana C.; Bigne, Enrique (Psychology & Marketing, 2024)
Abstract This research unveils to predict consumer ad preferences by detecting seven basic emotions, attention and engagement triggered by advertising through the analysis of two specific physiological monitoring tools, electrodermal activity (EDA), and Facial Expression Analysis (FEA), applied to video advertising, offering a twofold contribution of significant value. First, to identify the most relevant physiological features for consumer preference prediction. We integrated a statistical module encompassing inferential and exploratory analysis tools, which identified emotions such as Joy, Disgust, and Surprise, enabling the statistical differentiation of preferences concerning various advertisements. Second, we present an artificial intelligence (AI) system founded on machine learning techniques, encompassing k‐Nearest Neighbors, Support Vector Machine, and Random Forest (RF). Our findings show that the RF technique emerged as the top performer, boasting an 81% Accuracy, 84% Precision, 79% Recall, and an F1‐score of 81% in predicting consumer preferences. In addition, our research proposes an eXplainable AI module based on feature importance, which discerned Attention, Engagement, Joy, and Disgust as the four most pivotal features influencing consumer ad preference prediction. The results indicate that computerized intelligent systems based on EDA and FEA data can be used to predict consumer ad preferences based on videos and effectively used as supporting tools for marketing specialists.

Optimization of Energy Storage Systems with Renewable Energy Generation and Consumption Data - Filho, Edmilson Moreira Lima; Silveira, Aêdo Braga; Ferreira, Alexandre Marques; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Batista, Josias Guimarães; Guimarães, Glendo De Freitas; Alexandria, Auzuir Ripardo De; Rodrigues, Joel José Puga Coelho (2024 IEEE 7th Student Conference on Electric Machines and Systems (SCEMS), 2024)
This work provides a comprehensive systematic review of optimization techniques using artificial intelligence (AI) for energy storage systems within renewable energy setups. The primary goals are to evaluate the latest technologies employed in forecasting models for renewable energy generation, load forecasting, and energy storage systems, alongside their construction parameters and optimization methods. The review highlights the progress achieved, identifies current challenges, and explores future research directions. Despite the extensive application of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) in renewable energy generation, consumption patterns, and storage optimization, few studies integrate these three aspects simultaneously, underscoring the significance of this work. The review encompasses studies from Web of Science, Scopus, and Science Direct up to December 2023, including works scheduled for publication in 2024. Each study related to renewable energy storage was individually analyzed to assess its objectives, methodology, and results. The findings reveal useful insights for developing AI models aimed at optimizing storage systems. However, critical areas need further exploration, such as real-time forecasting, long-term storage predictions, hybrid neural networks for demand-based generation forecasting, and the evaluation of various storage scales and battery technologies. The review also notes a significant gap in research on large-scale storage systems in Brazil and Latin America. In conclusion, the study emphasizes the need for continued research and the development of new algorithms to address existing limitations in the field.

Mini-programs in mobile payment to access eGovernment in China’s Greater Bay Area - exploring the determinants and mechanism from self-determination and motivation theory - Patrick, Lai ChiMeng; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre (Cogent Social Sciences, 2024)
Government service mini-programs (GSMPs) in mobile payment have become integral to the eGovernment in China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA). The ubiquitous nature of WeChat and Alipay provides excellent flexibility for accessing public e-services. Yet, the determinants and mechanisms of adoption have not been identified. A convenience sample was collected from GBA core cities for statistical and SEM analysis. The findings suggest that service quality, trust in eGovernment, ubiquity, and social influence constitute the determinants. A structural model grounded on Self-Determination and Motivation theory is verified, where perceived value and intention contribute a high explanatory power. Benevolence, integrity, and competence are crucial indicators of trust, while social influence amplifies risk perception. Surprisingly, government support negatively moderates the impact of determinants on intention, indicating that over-intervention leads to inhibition. The mechanism illustrates the beneficial impact of GSMPs as the smart government channel and provides insights into addressing service homogeneity and policy applicability. Relevant theoretical and managerial implications are instructive to policymakers and practitioners of smart city innovation and in-depth integration in GBA.

Integration of Blockchain Technology in Auditing Practices - Bibliometric Analysis - Almeida, Ermelinda Nazaré António de; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre (Proceedings of the 2024 15th International Conference on E-business, Management and Economics, 2024)
The potential of blockchain technology extends beyond cryptocurrencies and has the power to transform various sectors, including accounting and auditing. Its integration into auditing practices presents opportunities and challenges, and auditors must navigate new standards and engage with clients effectively. Blockchain technology provides tamper-proof record-keeping and fraud prevention, enhancing efficiency, transparency, and security in domains such as finance, insurance, healthcare, education, e-voting, and supply chain management. This paper conducts a bibliometric analysis of blockchain technology literature to gain insights into the current state and future directions of blockchain technology in auditing. The study identifies significant research themes and trends using keyword and citation analysis. The Vosviewer software was used to analyze the data and visualize the results. Findings reveal significant growth in blockchain research, particularly from 2021 onwards, with China emerging as a leading contributor, followed by the USA, India, and the UK. This study provides valuable insights into current trends, key contributors, and global patterns in blockchain technology research within auditing practices, and future research may explore thematic areas in greater depth.

Enhancing Dynamic Hand Gesture Recognition through Optimized Feature Selection using Double Machine Learning - Yan, Keyue; Lam, Chi Fai; Fong, Simon; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Song, Qun; Qin, Huafeng (Proceedings of the 2024 8th International Conference on Big Data and Internet of Things, 2024)

Emotion Detection from EEG Signals Using Machine Deep Learning Models - Fernandes, João Vitor Marques Rabelo; Alexandria, Auzuir Ripardo de; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Assis, Débora Ferreira de; Motta, Pedro Crosara; Silva, Bruno Riccelli dos Santos (Bioengineering, 2024)
Detecting emotions is a growing field aiming to comprehend and interpret human emotions from various data sources, including text, voice, and physiological signals. Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a unique and promising approach among these sources. EEG is a non-invasive monitoring technique that records the brain’s electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp’s surface. It is used in clinical and research contexts to explore how the human brain responds to emotions and cognitive stimuli. Recently, its use has gained interest in real-time emotion detection, offering a direct approach independent of facial expressions or voice. This is particularly useful in resource-limited scenarios, such as brain–computer interfaces supporting mental health. The objective of this work is to evaluate the classification of emotions (positive, negative, and neutral) in EEG signals using machine learning and deep learning, focusing on Graph Convolutional Neural Networks (GCNN), based on the analysis of critical attributes of the EEG signal (Differential Entropy (DE), Power Spectral Density (PSD), Differential Asymmetry (DASM), Rational Asymmetry (RASM), Asymmetry (ASM), Differential Causality (DCAU)). The electroencephalography dataset used in the research was the public SEED dataset (SJTU Emotion EEG Dataset), obtained through auditory and visual stimuli in segments from Chinese emotional movies. The experiment employed to evaluate the model results was “subject-dependent”. In this method, the Deep Neural Network (DNN) achieved an accuracy of 86.08%, surpassing SVM, albeit with significant processing time due to the optimization characteristics inherent to the algorithm. The GCNN algorithm achieved an average accuracy of 89.97% in the subject-dependent experiment. This work contributes to emotion detection in EEG, emphasizing the effectiveness of different models and underscoring the importance of selecting appropriate features and the ethical use of these technologies in practical applications. The GCNN emerges as the most promising methodology for future research.

ECG Forecasting System Based on Long Short-Term Memory - Zacarias, Henriques; Marques, João Alexandre Lôbo; Felizardo, Virginie; Pourvahab, Mehran; Garcia, Nuno M. (Bioengineering, 2024)
Worldwide, cardiovascular diseases are some of the primary causes of death; yet the early detection and diagnosis of such diseases have the potential to save many lives. Technological means of detection are becoming increasingly essential and numerous techniques have been created for this purpose, such as forecasting. Of these techniques, the time series forecasting technique seeks to predict future events. The long-term time series forecasting of physiological data could assist medical professionals in predicting and treating patients based on very early diagnosis. This article presents a model that utilizes a deep learning technique to predict long-term ECG signals. The forecasting model can learn signals’ nonlinearity, nonstationarity, and complexity based on a long short-term memory architecture. However, this is not a trivial task as the correct forecasting of a signal that closely resembles the original complex signal’s structure and behavior while minimizing any differences in amplitude continues to pose challenges. To achieve this goal, we used a dataset available on the Physio net database, called MIT-BIH, with 48 ECG recordings of 30 min each. The developed model starts with pre-processing to reduce interference in the original signals, then applies a deep learning algorithm, based on a long short-term memory (LTSM) neural network with two hidden layers. Next, we applied the root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) metrics to evaluate the performance of the model and obtained an average RMSE of 0.0070±0.0028 and an average MAE of 0.0522±0.0098 across all simulations. The results indicate that the proposed LSTM model is a promising technique for ECG forecasting, considering the trends of the changes in the original data series, most notably in R-peak amplitude. Given the model’s accuracy and the features of the physiological signals, the system could be used to improve existing predictive healthcare systems for cardiovascular monitoring.

Doctor Bone: treinamento de redes neurais para auxílio na identificação da idade óssea - Barbosa, Rodrigo Lages; Martins, Heitor de Castro Teixeira e; Barbosa, Felipe Cassiano; da Costa, Beatriz Torres; Matela, Rolf Freitas; Neto, José Fernando Rodrigues Ferreira; Fontes, Yuri Nekan Soares; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Duarte, João Batista Furlan; Neto, Joel Sotero da Cunha (2024)
Objetivo: Explorar a aplicação de inteligência artificial (IA) na predição da idade óssea a partir de imagens de raios-X. Método: Utilizou-se a Metodologia Interdisciplinar para o Desenvolvimento de Tecnologias em Saúde (MIDTS) para desenvolver uma ferramenta de predição. O treinamento foi realizado com redes neurais convolucionais (CNNs) usando um conjunto de dados de 14.036 imagens de raios-X. Resultados: A ferramenta alcançou um coeficiente de determinação (R²) de 0,94807 e um Erro Médio Absoluto (MAE) de 6,97, destacando sua precisão e potencial de aplicação clínica. Conclusão: O projeto demonstrou grande potencial para aprimorar a predição da idade óssea, com possibilidades de evolução conforme a base de dados aumenta e a IA se torna mais sofisticada.

Automl-Based Eeg Signal Analysis in Neuro-Marketing Classification Using Biclustering Method - Albuquerque, Victor; Gois, Francisco Bernardo; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Silva, Bruno Riccelli dos Santos; Cortez, Paulo Cesar (Elsevier BV, 2024)
Consumer neuroscience analyzes individuals’ preferences through the assessment of physiological data monitoring, considering brain activity or other bioinformation to assess purchase decisions. Traditional marketing tactics include customer surveys, product evaluations, and comments. For product or brand marketing and mass production, it is important to understand consumer neurological responses when seeing an ad or testing a product. In this work, we use the bi-clustering method to reduce EEG noise and automatic machine learning to classify brain responses. We analyze a neuromarketing EEG dataset that contains EEG data from product evaluations from 25 participants, collected with a 14 channel Emotiv Epoch + device, while examining consumer items. Four components comprised the research methodology. Initially, the Welch Transform was used to filter the EEG raw data. Second, the best converted signal biclusterings are used to train different classification models. Each biclustering is evaluated with a separate classifier, considering F1-Score. After that, the H2O.ai AutoML library is used to select the optimal biclustering and models. Instead of traditional procedures, two thresholds are used. First-threshold values indicate customer satisfaction. Low values of the second threshold reflect consumer dissatisfaction. Values between the first and second criteria are classified as uncertain values. We outperform the state of the art with a 0.95 F1-Score value.

Assessment of the post-acute COVID-19 syndrome cardiovascular effect through ECG analysis - Ribeiro, Pedro; de Souza, Clarice Cristina Cunha; Camerino, Cristine Mayara Cavalcante; Pordeus, Daniel; Leite, Camila Ferreira; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Madeiro, João Paulo; Rodrigues, Pedro Miguel (2024)
Introduction: SARS-CoV-2, a virus responsible for the emergence of the life-threatening disease known as COVID-19, exhibits a diverse range of clinical manifestations. The spectrum of symptoms varies widely, encompassing mild to severe presentations, while a considerable portion of the population remains asymptomatic. COVID-19, primarily a respiratory virus, has been linked to cardiovascular complications in some patients. Notably, cardiac issues can also arise after recovery, contributing to post-acute COVID-19 syndrome, a significant concern for patient health. The present study intends to evaluate the post-acute COVID-19 syndrome cardiovascular effect through ECG by comparing patients affected with cardiac diseases without COVID-19 diagnosis report (class 1) and patients with cardiac pathologies who present post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (class 2). Methods: From 2 body positions, a total of 10 non-linear features, extracted every 1 second under a multi-band analysis performed by Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), have been compressed by 6 statistical metrics to serve as inputs for an individual feature analysis by the means of Mann-Whitney U-test and XROC classification. Results and Discussion: 480 Mann-Whitney U-test statistical analyses and XROC discrimination approaches have been done. The percentage of statistical analysis with significant differences (p<0.05) was 30.42% (146 out of 480). The best overall results were obtained by approximating the feature Energy, with the data compressor Kurtosis in the body position Down. Those results were 83.33% of Accuracy, 83.33% of Sensitivity, 83.33% of Specificity and 87.50% of AUC. Conclusions: The results show that the applied methodology can be a way to show changes in cardiac behaviour provoked by post-acute COVID-19 syndrome.

Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning in Stock Prediction: A Bibliometric Review - Chin, Yang Lin; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Lin, Kun Chan (2024)
Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (DL) are advancing in stock market prediction, attracting the attention of researchers in computer science and finance. This bibliometric review analyzes 525 articles published from 1991 to 2024 in Scopus-indexed journals, utilizing VOSviewer software to identify key research trends, influential contributors, and burgeoning themes. The bibliometric analysis encompasses a performance analysis of the most prominent scientific contributors and a network analysis of scientific mapping, which includes co-authorship, co-occurrence, citation, bibliographical coupling, and co-citation analyses enabled by the VOSviewer software. Among the 693 countries, significant hubs of knowledge production include China, the US, India, and the UK, highlighting the global relevance of the field. Various AI and DL technologies are increasingly employed in stock price predictions, with artificial neural networks (ANN) and other methods such as long short-term memory (LSTM), Random Forest, Sentiment Analysis, Support Vector Machine/Regression (SVM/SVR), among the 1399 keyword counts in publications. Influential studies such as LeBaron (1999) and Moghaddam (2016) have shaped foundational research in 8159 citations. This review offers original insights into the bibliometric landscape of AI and DL applications in finance by mapping global knowledge production and identifying critical AI methods advancing stock market prediction. It enables finance professionals to learn about technological developments and trends to enhance decision-making and gain market advantage.

Analysis of deep learning algorithms for emotion classification based on facial expression recognition - Qian, Cheng; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Fong, Simon James (Proceedings of the 2024 8th International Conference on Big Data and Internet of Things, 2024)
Facial expression recognition (FER) is essential for discerning human emotions and is applied extensively in big data analytics, healthcare, security, and user experience enhancement. This paper presents an empirical study that evaluates four existing deep learning models—VGG16, DenseNet, ResNet50, and GoogLeNet—utilizing the Facial Expression Recognition 2013 (FER2013) dataset. The dataset contains seven distinct emotional expressions: angry, disgust, fear, happy, neutral, sad, and surprise. Each model underwent rigorous assessment based on metrics including test accuracy, training duration, and weight file size to test their effectiveness in FER tasks. ResNet50 emerged as the top performer with a test accuracy of 69.46%, leveraging its residual learning architecture to effectively address challenges inherent in training deep neural networks. Conversely, GoogLeNet exhibited the lowest test accuracy among the models, suggesting potential architectural constraints in FER applications. VGG16, while competitive in accuracy, demonstrated lengthier training times and a larger weight file size (512MB), highlighting the inherent balance between model complexity and computational efficiency.

Real-time emotion recognition based on facial expressions using artificial intelligence techniques - A review and future directions - Cheng, Qian; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; de Alexandria, Auzuir Ripardo (2025)

Application of Multiple Deep Learning Architectures for Emotion Classification Based on Facial Expressions - Qian, Cheng; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Alexandria, Auzuir Ripardo de; Fong, Simon James (Sensors, 2025)
Facial expression recognition (FER) is essential for discerning human emotions and is applied extensively in big data analytics, healthcare, security, and user experience enhancement. This study presents a comprehensive evaluation of ten state-of-the-art deep learning models—VGG16, VGG19, ResNet50, ResNet101, DenseNet, GoogLeNet V1, MobileNet V1, EfficientNet V2, ShuffleNet V2, and RepVGG—on the task of facial expression recognition using the FER2013 dataset. Key performance metrics, including test accuracy, training time, and weight file size, were analyzed to assess the learning efficiency, generalization capabilities, and architectural innovations of each model. EfficientNet V2 and ResNet50 emerged as top performers, achieving high accuracy and stable convergence using compound scaling and residual connections, enabling them to capture complex emotional features with minimal overfitting. DenseNet, GoogLeNet V1, and RepVGG also demonstrated strong performance, leveraging dense connectivity, inception modules, and re-parameterization techniques, though they exhibited slower initial convergence. In contrast, lightweight models such as MobileNet V1 and ShuffleNet V2, while excelling in computational efficiency, faced limitations in accuracy, particularly in challenging emotion categories like “fear” and “disgust”. The results highlight the critical trade-offs between computational efficiency and predictive accuracy, emphasizing the importance of selecting appropriate architecture based on application-specific requirements. This research contributes to ongoing advancements in deep learning, particularly in domains such as facial expression recognition, where capturing subtle and complex patterns is essential for high-performance outcomes.

A Novel Improvement of Feature Selection for Dynamic Hand Gesture Identification Based on Double Machine Learning - Yan, Keyue; Lam, Chi-Fai; Fong, Simon; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre; Millham, Richard Charles; Mohammed, Sabah (Sensors, 2025)
Causal machine learning is an approach that combines causal inference and machine learning to understand and utilize causal relationships in data. In current research and applications, traditional machine learning and deep learning models always focus on prediction and pattern recognition. In contrast, causal machine learning goes a step further by revealing causal relationships between different variables. We explore a novel concept called Double Machine Learning that embraces causal machine learning in this research. The core goal is to select independent variables from a gesture identification problem that are causally related to final gesture results. This selection allows us to classify and analyze gestures more efficiently, thereby improving models’ performance and interpretability. Compared to commonly used feature selection methods such as Variance Threshold, Select From Model, Principal Component Analysis, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator, Artificial Neural Network, and TabNet, Double Machine Learning methods focus more on causal relationships between variables rather than correlations. Our research shows that variables selected using the Double Machine Learning method perform well under different classification models, with final results significantly better than those of traditional methods. This novel Double Machine Learning-based approach offers researchers a valuable perspective for feature selection and model construction. It enhances the model’s ability to uncover causal relationships within complex data. Variables with causal significance can be more informative than those with only correlative significance, thus improving overall prediction performance and reliability.

Local Equivalence of the Black–Scholes and Merton–Garman Equations - Arraut, Ivan (2025)
It has been previously demonstrated that stochastic volatility emerges as the gauge field necessary to restore local symmetry under changes in stock prices in the Black–Scholes (BS) equation. When this occurs, a Merton–Garman-like equation emerges. From the perspective of manifolds, this means that the Black–Scholes and Merton–Garman (MG) equations can be considered locally equivalent. In this scenario, the MG Hamiltonian is a special case of a more general Hamiltonian, here referred to as the gauge Hamiltonian. We then show that the gauge character of volatility implies a specific functional relationship between stock prices and volatility. The connection between stock prices and volatility is a powerful tool for improving volatility estimations in the stock market, which is a key ingredient for investors to make good decisions. Finally, we define an extended version of the martingale condition, defined for the gauge Hamiltonian.

The shifting landscape of Chinese student mobility to Thailand - Lertpusit, Sivarin; Ge, Rochelle; Ho, Kong Chong (Asian Population Studies, 2025)
This paper examines the evolving trends in Chinese student mobility to Thailand, highlighting three distinct phases shaped by changes in the higher education: the dominance of Thai language programmes (1990–2010), the rise of business and international programmes (2010–2020), and the increasing preference for graduate studies (2020 onwards). By analysing the economic, cultural, and institutional factors facilitating these shifts, this paper positions Thailand as an emerging alternative study destination for Chinese students. It highlights the significance of this migration within the context of Thailand’s declining fertility rate and labour shortages, focusing on how Thai universities have adapted through active recruitment strategies targeting Chinese students. This paper also addresses the push and pull factors underpinning this migration and the pursuit of alternative educational pathways among Chinese youth. Additionally, it explores the strategic role of Sino-Thai collaborations under the BRI and their broader implications for educational mobility and economic ties.

Global Curriculum Development Trends and Teacher Training Needs: Challenges and Opportunities in Change - Ge, Rochelle (2024)

Intensifying Higher Education Collaboration between Macau SAR and PSCs: Supporting System and Strategic Implications - Ge, Rochelle (2024)

China-ASEAN Student Mobilities along the Belt and Road: New Trends and Implications - Ge, Rochelle (2024)

是來時路，亦是前行燈：澳門教師的使命與歸屬 - Ge, Rochelle (2025)

A grounded theory study of Chinese female spouses of problem gamblers in Hong Kong: emergence of a multiple-paradigm coping model - Kwan, Edward Wood Kai; Jackson, Alun C.; Tse, Samson (Asia Pacific Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 2025)

A razão da intervenção psicológica na deformidade dentofacial - Silva, Susana; Teixeira, Vítor; Pinhão Ferreira, Afonso; Ustrell‐Torrent, Maria Josep (Revista Portuguesa de Estomatologia, Medicina Dentária e Cirurgia Maxilofacial, 2016)

Autoestima e deformidade dentofacial: um estudo comparativo com a escala de autoestima global de Rosenberg - Silva, Susana; Teixeira, Vítor; Pinhão Ferreira, Afonso; Ustrell‐Torrent, Maria Josep (Revista Portuguesa de Estomatologia, Medicina Dentária e Cirurgia Maxilofacial, 2016)

Determining the relationships of employee resilience and organizational culture with levels of employee work engagement - Kuok, Angus; Taormina, Robert (2024)
The objective is to assess whether the extent to which employee resilience and organizational culture would be significantly related to and statistically predict the three facets of employee work engagement. Resilience was measured by four facets (Determination, Endurance, Adaptability, and Recuperability); and Organization Culture was measured for three types (Bureaucratic, Innovative, and Supportive). The dependent measures were the three facets of Work Engagement (Cognitive, Emotional, and Physical). This research by questionnaire was conducted in 2023. The questionnaires completed by 316 full-time workers revealed that all four facets of employee resilience had significant positive correlations with all three types of work engagement. Also, all three facets of work engagement were significantly higher in Innovative and Supportive cultures compared to Bureaucratic cultures. The regression analyses performed showed that the resilience factors of Determination and Adaptability were strong positive predictors of all three facets of work engagement. Furthermore, Innovative culture had additional positive effects on all three facets of work engagement; while Supportive culture had an additional positive effect on Emotional Work Engagement. The implications of the results for management are also discussed in this paper.

THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN A CONFUCIAN-HERITAGE CULTURE AND TEACHERS' SENTIMENTS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS INCLUSION IN MACAU - Correia, Ana; Forlin, Chris; Santos Teixeira, Vitor; Kuok, A. C. H.; Monteiro, Elisa (2019)
Macau Special Administration Region (Macau SAR) is in the process of revising legislation concerning special and inclusive education. While the institutional discourse revolves around establishing inclusive education, it is unclear as to how the proposed changes will enable or depress this from occurring. This research, therefore, examined teachers attitudes towards inclusion as an indication of how well the new legislation may be received. Specifically, it investigated the interplay between 508 teachers working in private schools in Macau, that identified themselves as being inclusive schools, and teachers sentiments and attitudes towards the acceptance of inclusion and the role that Confucian values might play in shaping these attitudes. Discussion focusses on four key outcomes that need to be addressed if a significant improvement in including all children in regular schools in Macau is to be achieved. These include the need (1) to clarify the concept of inclusion at government, school, and teacher levels as it currently has ambiguous meaning; (2) to provide teachers with more opportunities to have systematic contacts with students with SEN, as this is crucial to improving their sentiments and attitudes toward people with disability; (3) to provide professional learning about inclusive education with better partnerships between teacher education institutions and schools to bridge theory and practice; and (4) to review the hidden influence of the subtle levels of time-honoured Confucian beliefs in Macau, which are not manifest nor easily detected but possibly have a deep impact on day-to-day practices.

Examining the Latent Structure of Gambling Motivation and Its Relationship with Gambling Behavior in Gambling-Exposed Chinese Casino Employees - Mordeno, Imelu G.; Coteriano, Carla; Leong, Sin U. (Psychological Studies, 2017)
Examining why individuals engage in gambling is important in understanding the development of gambling behaviors. Numerous studies have investigated the underlying factor of gambling motivation. However, there is a dearth of evidence showing the latent dimensions of gambling motivation among individuals who are exposed to gambling in daily basis (i.e., casino employees). To address this gap, 817 casino employees were administered the Chinese version of the Gambling Motivation Scale (GMS) and other related measures. Results revealed that of the four models tested, a first-order model with seven factors achieved better fit in contrast to all other models. The seven factors include intrinsic motivation (IM) for knowledge, IM for accomplishment, IM for stimulation, extrinsic motivation (EM) due to identified regulation, EM due to introjected regulation, EM due to external regulation, and amotivation. However, the seven-factor model did not reach the conventional fit indices for good fit. After some post hoc modifications, the revised model achieved adequate fit. Moreover, the revised seven factors were related to frequency of gambling and amount spent for gambling. Generally, results showed that modified GMS with seven factors can be used with Chinese population, more specifically with Chinese casino employees.
Keywords: Casino employees; Gambling; Latent structure

Sharing towards cohesive community: the role of social capital in sharing economy - Lai, Michael (ResearchGate, 2024)
PDF | Purpose Whilst the majority of academic studies have focused on the for-profit business-to-consumer type of sharing economy, the community-based... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

The use Robotics in the intervention with children with ASD in Macao: a pilot study with Milo - Teixeira, Vitor; Lai, Michael (Revista Portuguesa de Investigação Educacional, 2021)
Robotics are being used in the intervention with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in many places and already for many years. Many robots were developed and different studies are being made in order to evaluate its effectiveness. “Socially Assistive Robotics” is shown to be effective in different areas mainly in social and emotional development. Milo, a robot developed by a team led by Richard Margolin for the Robots4Autism program (RoboKind, 2020), is one of the robots whose use is reported to be successful. In Macao there is no report of studies or experiences on the use of robots in the intervention with children with ASD. In a collaboration between the Macao Science Centre, the Macao Autism Association (MAA) and the University of Saint Joseph, an exploratory study was developed to understand the applicability of Milo to the work with children with ASD in Macao. The study showed that the robot is able to facilitate social and emotional competences of children with ASD. However, several limitations including language, cultural differences, the inexperienced facilitators and the level of sessions are too simple for the participants to be aware of that may affect the effectiveness of the intervention. It is important to show that the adoption of Milo in Macao for intervening children with ASD can be further implemented, with better practical solutions.
Number: 21

A aquisição da leitura em leitores principiantes: erros típicos no português europeu - Simões, Edlia; Martins, Margarida Alves (Educação e Pesquisa, 2018)
O estudo das estratégias que as crianças usam na leitura de palavras e a análise dos erros que tipicamente ocorrem ao longo do processo de aprendizagem numa dada ortografia são da maior importância para a compreensão do processo de aprendizagem da leitura. O objectivo deste trabalho foi perceber como se processa a aquisição da leitura no início do ensino fundamental no português europeu. Procurou-se saber se haveria diferenças na frequência de erros fonológicos e lexicais e no padrão de erros fonológicos entre os dois primeiros anos do ensino fundamental. Participaram 175 crianças do 1º ano e 137 do 2º ano de seis escolas. Foi aplicada uma prova de leitura oral de palavras. Os erros foram categorizados em fonológicos, com diversas subcategorias, e lexicais. Encontraram-se diferenças na frequência dos erros fonológicos e lexicais entre os dois anos, assim como nos subtipos de erros fonológicos que tipicamente ocorreram. Os erros de substituição foram os mais frequentes, tendo ocorrido mais nas consoantes e nos dígrafos. Seguiram-se os erros de adição e de supressão, que ocorreram sobretudo em sílabas complexas. Tais resultados, contribuindo para uma caracterização dos erros típicos nessa fase de aprendizagem, revelam-se um instrumento importante na detecção de dificuldades precoces na aprendizagem da leitura e na adequação de estratégias de ensino-aprendizagem. Este estudo permite uma melhor compreensão dos processos usados pelas crianças na resolução dos problemas que as características da língua portuguesa lhes coloca, assim como poderá permitir uma intervenção educativa que conduza a um maior sucesso na aprendizagem da leitura.Leitores principiantes; Aprendizagem; Leitura de palavras; Padrão de erros
Keywords: Aprendizagem; Leitores principiantes; Leitura de palavras; Padrão de erros

Unveiling retail omnichannel challenges: developing an omnichannel obstacles scale - Radomska, Joanna; Kawa, Arkadiusz; Hajdas, Monika; Klimas, Patrycja; Silva, Susana C. (International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 2024)
Purpose Retail omnichannel implementation faces barriers hindering accurate and efficient integration across marketing channels. Our desk examination identified a need for a broader perspective in investigating these barriers, moving away from a dominant, narrow approach. This research aims to develop a comprehensive set of items to measure retail omnichannel obstacles, refine the scale and assess its reliability and validity for a robust measurement tool. Design/methodology/approach Our approach combines quantitative and qualitative methods, using data from primary and secondary sources to create and validate the omnichannel obstacles scale. Findings This study emphasises the inclusive nature of retail functional areas, departing from prior literature that examined them in isolation. Instead of focussing on separate domains where retail omnichannel obstacles may arise, we adopt a holistic perspective by integrating previously disconnected elements. Originality/value We assert that challenges in retail omnichannel operations encompass three distinct dimensions: operational efficiency, channel inefficiency, and strategy and organisational culture within retailing. In our final validated measurement model, we consolidate the channel inefficiency dimension and refine the omnichannel obstacles scale to emphasise two areas of consideration.

Is masculinity ruining the male skincare market? Comprehensive insights on consumer behavior in cosmetics - Duarte, Paulo; Silva, Susana; Carvalho, Maria Joana (Journal of Consumer Marketing, 2025)
This paper aims to investigate the factors influencing men’s purchase intentions for skincare products, particularly focusing on the evolving attitudes toward masculinity, grooming and self-care. The study seeks to identify dimensions such as self-image, health concerns, masculinity and perceptions regarding skincare, along with the impact of social media use on men’s skincare purchase intentions.,The research uses an online questionnaire to gather data from 178 valid responses. The collected data is analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.,The results reveal that men’s skin health concerns significantly impact their purchase intention for skincare products. Self-image concerns and perceptions regarding skincare also emerge as influential determinants in shaping men’s purchasing decisions. Conversely, health concerns and social media platform use do not directly influence skincare purchase intention. Notably, self-image completely mediates the relationship between men’s social media usage and their intention to purchase skincare products.,The data is based on responses from an online questionnaire, which may introduce biases. In addition, the research focuses on specific personal variables and social media use, potentially overlooking other influential factors.,By recognizing the importance of men’s skin health concerns, self-image and perceptions regarding skincare, cosmetic companies can tailor marketing strategies to effectively target key dimensions to enhance sales of skincare products among men.,In a broader societal context, this research contributes to the ongoing evolution of attitudes. By identifying influential factors in men’s skincare purchase intention, the study sheds light on changing societal norms and perceptions. Acknowledging these shifts can lead to a more inclusive understanding of masculinity and contribute to breaking traditional stereotypes related to men’s grooming practices.,This research contributes to the understanding of men’s skincare purchase intention by exploring dimensions such as self-image, health concerns, masculinity and perceptions regarding skincare, in conjunction with the impact of social media use. The findings provide valuable insights, expanding on previous studies on men’s attitudes toward skincare products. The identification of self-image as a complete mediator is a novel contribution.

Empowering Luxury: How Cause-Related Marketing Influences Gen Z and Millennials' Post-Purchase Guilt in China's High-End Retail Landscape - Dias, Joana Carmo; Silva, Susana; Martins, Carla; Casais, Beatriz (European Journal of Applied Business and Management, 2024)
Purpose: This study explores the emotional impact of post-purchase guilt on younger consumers in the Chinese luxury retail market, with a specific focus on the role of Cause-related Marketing (CrM) in mitigating negative emotions across luxury and non-luxury product categories.Design/Methodology/Approach: A quantitative experimental design was utilized, involving 326 respondents exposed to different advertising scenarios. The study tested the impact of CrM on post-purchase guilt in both luxury (high-priced) and non-luxury (moderately priced) product conditions, using a 2 × 2 factorial design. The data were analyzed using ANCOVA to assess the effects of CrM campaigns across conditions.Findings: The results demonstrate that CrM effectively reduces post-purchase guilt across both luxury and non-luxury product categories, providing a moral justification for purchases by linking them to a positive social cause. However, contrary to expectations, the impact of CrM was not significantly stronger in the luxury context compared to non-luxury. This suggests that CrM's influence on post-purchase guilt operates uniformly, regardless of product type.Originality: This research enhances understanding Millennial and Gen Z consumer behavior in the Chinese luxury market. The findings offer actionable insights for luxury brands, highlighting the effectiveness of CrM in addressing guilt-related concerns, thereby informing marketing strategies aimed at younger generations.Keywords: post-purchase guilt, Millennials, Gen Z, Chinese luxury retail industry, cause-related marketing.Acknowledgments: The first author would like to thank CEGE – Research Centre in Management and Economics, funded by The Multiannual Funding Programme of R&D Centres of FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia under the project UIDB/00731/2020. The fourth author would like to thank COMEGI funded by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia under the project UIDB/04005/2020.DOI: https://doi.org/10.58869/EJABM10(3)/06
Number: 3

Trust in AI and Top Management Support in Generative-AI Adoption - Korzyński, Paweł; Silva, Susana Costa E; Górska, Anna Maria; Mazurek, Grzegorz (Journal of Computer Information Systems, 2024)

A Possible Solution to the Black Hole Information Paradox - Arraut, Ivan (AppliedMath, 2025)
The information paradox suggests that the black hole loses information when it emits radiation. In this way, the spectrum of radiation corresponds to a mixed (non-pure) quantum state even if the internal state generating the black hole is expected to be pure in essence. In this paper we propose an argument solving this paradox by developing an understanding of the process by which spontaneous symmetry breaks when a black hole selects one of the many possible ground states and emits radiation as a consequence of it. Here, the particle operator number is the order parameter. This mechanism explains the connection between the density matrix, corresponding to the pure state describing the black hole state, and the density matrix describing the spectrum of radiation (mixed quantum state). From this perspective, we can recover black hole information from the superposition principle, applied to the different possible order parameters (particle number operators).
Number: 1
Keywords: Hawking radiation; black holes; information paradox; spontaneous symmetry breaking

Unveiling the power of supplier-country image on B2B customers' perceptions: Beyond the product’s beauty - Crespo, Cátia Fernandes; Crespo, Nuno Fernandes; Silva, Susana C. (International Business Review, 2025)

基于价格检验的粤港澳大湾区经济一体化实证研究 - CNKI [Empirical Study on the Economic Integration of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Based on Price Assessment] - 王心如; 李颖芝 (产业创新研究, 2024)

Impact of Education on Green Fintech Adoption: Evidence From the New Sub-Center of Beijing - Lei, Weng Chi; An, Boyang (Journal of Global Business Research and Practice, 2024)

Beyond the myth: understanding women's impulsive retail footwear shopping - Duarte, Paulo; Silva, Susana C.; Magro, Margarida; Dias, Joana Carmo (International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 2025)
Purpose This research focuses on common misconceptions about the factors driving women to purchase footwear impulsively. Its primary objective is to explore how emotional and social triggers specifically influence women's purchasing decisions, contrasting with the traditionally rational consumer models. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire was administered to a sample of women, yielding 199 useable responses. Findings The findings reveal the key determinants of women's impulsive retail footwear purchases, which include self-regulation, hedonic motivations and the influence of the retail store environment. This research challenges the prevailing assumption that women's passion for shopping is driven solely by inherent characteristics and suggests that external factors substantially shape their impulsive buying behaviour. In summary, the stereotypical portrayal of women as compulsive retail footwear shoppers may result more from external stimuli and environmental factors rather than an intrinsic trait. Originality/value This study improves the existing knowledge of women’s impulsive buying behaviour by unveiling the determinants of women's impulsive footwear purchases and assessing whether prevailing stereotypes hold true.

Habermas, Honneth, Critical Theory, and Ideology Critique for Transformative Mixed Methods Research - Morrison, Keith (Journal of Mixed Methods Studies, 2024)
This article sets a theoretical foundation to transformative mixed methods research that is rooted in the critical theory of Habermas and Honneth. This addresses Habermas’s knowledge-constitutive interests and communicative action for redressing societal pathologies, and Honneth’s work on (mis)recognition, (dis)respect, and social justice. In doing so, the article argues for broadening the scope and embrace of mixed methods research, to go beyond being empirical research only or largely, and to include theorisation, critical theoretical discourse and its analysis, and ideology critique, as legitimate methods for (transformative) mixed methods research. The article makes a case for these methods as constituting important research methods in themselves in the portfolio of mixed methods research, moving the boundaries of mixed methods research beyond solely empirical studies, and providing emancipatory lenses and consciousness-raising in recognising that transformation takes many forms.

The Impact of Personal Characteristics of Successors in Chinese Family Firms on Succession Based on Thematic Content Analysis - Zou, Zhuoneng; Phillips, Jenny O. L. (Proceedings of the SSEME Workshop on Economics and Management (SSEME-EM 2024), 2024)
Series Title: Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research

Factors Affecting Teacher Turnover in Private Schools in Macau - Leng, Ao I.; Phillips, Jenny O. L. (Proceedings of the 2024 SSEME Workshop on Social Sciences and Education (SSEME-SSE 2024), 2024)
Series Title: Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research

Employee Motivation in Elderly Care Social Enterprises in Macau - Phillips, Jenny O. L.; Mui, UnKei (Journal of Advanced Management Science, 2024)

Consumer Purchase Intention towards Floral Products: A Study Based on the Five Consumption Values - Lei, Si Nga; Phillips, Jenny O. L. (Journal of Economics, Business and Management, 2024)

Understanding Policy Acceptance Through UTAUT-2: The Case of the Northbound Travel Policy for Macau Vehicles - Lampo, Alessandro; Diakite, Ansoumane D.; Ip, Emil C. H. (Journal of Global Business Research and Practice, 2024)

From Overcoming Self to Overcoming Nature: Teaching on Human Nature in Ricci, Pantoja, and Aleni - Cai, Yilun (Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, 2024)
Publisher: Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture
Keywords: Catholicism and Confucianism; Intercultural Dialogue; Jesuit Mission to China; Jesuit Theology; Theological Anthropology

Beyond the myth: understanding women's impulsive retail footwear shopping - Duarte, Paulo; Silva, Susana C.; Magro, Margarida; Dias, Joana Carmo (International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 2024)
This research focuses on common misconceptions about the factors driving women to purchase footwear impulsively. Its primary objective is to explore how emotional and social triggers specifically influence women's purchasing decisions, contrasting with the traditionally rational consumer models.,An online questionnaire was administered to a sample of women, yielding 199 useable responses.,The findings reveal the key determinants of women's impulsive retail footwear purchases, which include self-regulation, hedonic motivations and the influence of the retail store environment. This research challenges the prevailing assumption that women's passion for shopping is driven solely by inherent characteristics and suggests that external factors substantially shape their impulsive buying behaviour. In summary, the stereotypical portrayal of women as compulsive retail footwear shoppers may result more from external stimuli and environmental factors rather than an intrinsic trait.,This study improves the existing knowledge of women’s impulsive buying behaviour by unveiling the determinants of women's impulsive footwear purchases and assessing whether prevailing stereotypes hold true.

Action research on circular economy strategies in fashion retail - Silva, Susana C.; Neiva, Carolina Rocha; Dias, Joana Carmo (International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 2025)
Purpose The aim of this study is to explore the role and impact of action research in the adoption of circular economy strategies by a fashion retail brand. This exploration is motivated by the need to address the underutilization of action research in management studies, despite its potential to foster a deep understanding of organizational processes and to drive positive transformations. The study seeks to illustrate how action research can contribute to the practical implementation of sustainability initiatives, specifically within the context of new environmental legislation and growing demands for sustainable practices in retailing. Design/methodology/approach This research employs an action research methodology, particularly suited to the retail field, where understanding and influencing organizational processes are key. Through a detailed case study of a fashion retail brand, the study illustrates how action research facilitates the adoption of circular economy strategies. Findings The findings of this study underscore the effectiveness of action research in implementing circular economy strategies within the fashion retail industry. Specifically, it highlights how this approach has led to the successful reduction of waste and reintegration of products into their lifecycle. Originality/value The originality of this study lies in its thorough application of action research to measure and refine the outcomes of circular economy strategies in retailing. This novel approach provides substantial insights into the potential of the circular economy to drive practical innovations in business practices within retail.

Understanding the dynamics of customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions in the era of platform service supply chain – a case study of Foodpanda in Pakistan - Choudhary, Waliha; Waqar Haider, Syed; Raza, Aamir; Silva, Susana C.; Carmo Dias, Joana (Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 2024)

Post-Covid-19 Gender Inequality in Global Employment: A Difference-In-Difference Analysis - Lei, Weng Chi (Atlantis Press, 2024)
The fifth Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations targets achieving gender equality by 2030, but recent progress has been sluggish. Gender inequalities in the labor markets may have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 recession. This paper aims to investigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on gender inequalities in the labor markets by...

Predicting consumer ad preferences: Leveraging a machine learning approach for EDA and FEA neurophysiological metrics - Marques, João Alexandre Lobo; Neto, Andreia C.; Silva, Susana C.; Bigne, Enrique (Psychology & Marketing, 2025)
This research unveils to predict consumer ad preferences by detecting seven basic emotions, attention and engagement triggered by advertising through the analysis of two specific physiological monitoring tools, electrodermal activity (EDA), and Facial Expression Analysis (FEA), applied to video advertising, offering a twofold contribution of significant value. First, to identify the most relevant physiological features for consumer preference prediction. We integrated a statistical module encompassing inferential and exploratory analysis tools, which identified emotions such as Joy, Disgust, and Surprise, enabling the statistical differentiation of preferences concerning various advertisements. Second, we present an artificial intelligence (AI) system founded on machine learning techniques, encompassing k-Nearest Neighbors, Support Vector Machine, and Random Forest (RF). Our findings show that the RF technique emerged as the top performer, boasting an 81% Accuracy, 84% Precision, 79% Recall, and an F1-score of 81% in predicting consumer preferences. In addition, our research proposes an eXplainable AI module based on feature importance, which discerned Attention, Engagement, Joy, and Disgust as the four most pivotal features influencing consumer ad preference prediction. The results indicate that computerized intelligent systems based on EDA and FEA data can be used to predict consumer ad preferences based on videos and effectively used as supporting tools for marketing specialists.
_eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/mar.22118
Keywords: advertising; consumer ad preferences; consumer neuroscience; emotions; explainable artificial intelligence; machine learning

Comparing Online Learning Experiences Between University Students With and Without Special Educational Needs During COVID-19 - Lim, Yun Ting; Nah, Yong-Hwee; Chen, Mo (ISSN: 2758-0962 The Paris Conference on Education 2024: Official Conference Proceedings, 2024)
The aim of this study is to examine the online learning experiences of university students with Special Educational Needs (SEN), and how their experiences might differ from their typically developing peers. Fifty typically developing students (mean age = 22; 29 females) and 31 students with SEN (mean age = 22; 15 females) from a local

Changing professional identities: a qualitative study of how Singapore allied educators managed their own resistance to change - Kit, Phey Ling; Ow Yeong, Wai Mang Elizabeth; Chen, Mo (Teacher Development, 2024)

The Effect of Empathy on Relationship Satisfaction in Young Adult Lovers in Macau: The Role of Love Maintenance Behaviors - 黎志濠 (University of Saint Joseph, 2024)
The purpose of this study was to explore the correlation between empathy, love maintenance behaviors, relationship satisfaction in a convenience sample of young adult lovers in Macau. Participants were N = 183 (84 males, 99 females) recruited from the social media platform (e.g. Instagram, WeChat, Facebook). Firstly, young adult lovers who tended to have high relationship satisfaction and empathy are tended to use positive love maintenance behaviors but less likely to use negative love maintenance behaviors. Besides, there were differences found by gender in empathy (affective empathy & total empathy), some dimensions of positive love maintenance behaviors (openness & advice), and negative love maintenance behaviors (causing jealousy, destructive conflict & negative love maintenance behaviors in general). Lastly, the findings in this study supported the hypotheses that love maintenance behaviors mediated the relationship between relationship satisfaction and empathy among young adult lovers in Macau. It was revealed that there was higher satisfaction in younger adult lovers in younger group (18-24 years) compared to older groups (32-40 years). For empathy, it correlated positively with relationship satisfaction and most positive love maintenance behaviors, but also with certain negative love maintenance behaviors. Positive love maintenance behaviors mediate the relationship between relationship satisfaction and empathy, highlighting their critical role in maintaining healthy relationships
Keywords: Love maintenance behaviors; Thesis and Dissertations Master of Couselling and Psychotherapy (MCP); University of Saint Joseph; empathy; relationship satisfaction

澳門普通小學教師職業幸福感：: 現況、影響因素及提升策略 = THE OCCUPATIONAL WELL-BEING OF MACAU PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS：CURRENT STATUS, INFLUENCING FACTORS, AND ENHANCEMENT STRATEGIES - 黎嘉穎 (University of Saint Joseph, 2024)
Keywords: Thesis and Dissertations Master of Education (MED); University of Saint Joseph; 教師; 澳門小學; 職業幸福感

Modelos de Incorporação do Desenvolvimento Sustentável nos Acordos de Comércio - Rafael, Ângelo Patrício; Wei, Dan (Uma viagem Jurídica Entre o Rio das Pérolas e a Pérola do Índico: Publicação Comemorativa dos 25 Anos da Cooperação entre a Faculdade de Direito da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (FDUEM) e a Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Macau (FDUM), 2024)

The cosmological constant emerging from a symmetry invariant - Arraut, Ivan (Modern Physics Letters A, 2024)
The cosmological constant is normally introduced as an additional term entering the Einstein–Hilbert (EH) action. In this letter, we demonstrate that, instead, it appears naturally from the standard EH action as an invariant term emerging from spacetime symmetries. We then demonstrate that the same constraint emerging from this invariant suppresses the short wavelength modes and it favors the long wavelength ones. In this way, inside the proposed formulation, the observed value for the vacuum energy density is obtained naturally from the zero-point quantum fluctuations.
Keywords: Dark energy; cosmological constant; zero point quantum fluctuations

An Evangelical Adrift: The Making of John Henry Newman's Theology by Geertjan Zuijdwegt (review) - Morgan, Stephen (Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, 2023)

Order parameter conditions from mutual information and symmetry conditions - Arraut, Ivan; Yu, Wing Chi (International Journal of Modern Physics B, 2024)
The mutual information method has demonstrated to be very useful for deriving the potential order parameter of a system. Although the method suggests some constraints which help to define this quantity, there is still some freedom in the definition. The method then results inefficient for cases where we have order parameters with a large number of constants in the expansion, which happens when we have many degenerate vacuums. Here, we introduce some additional constraints based on the existence of broken symmetries, which help us to reduce the arbitrariness in the definitions of the order parameter in the proposed mutual information method.
Keywords: Mutual information; order parameter; quantum phase transitions; spontaneous symmetry breaking

Examining How "Technology Show-off" Affects the Acceptance of Innovations in the Battery Electric Vehicle Sector. - Lampo, Alessandro (Proceedings of the 2024 6th International Conference on Management Science and Industrial Engineering, 2024)
Theories and models try to describe the complexity of how people embrace and make use of innovations. The determinants of behavior concerning battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have traditionally revolved around factors such as vehicles’ price and range. Surprisingly, despite being small and one of the wealthiest territories in the world, Macau SAR faces challenges in BEV market penetration, underscoring the need to explore alternative causes of behavioral intention. To explain the adoption of technologies, this paper focuses on technology show-off (TS), which combines Rogers’ (2003) concepts of visibility and trialability of technology in a single construct as a determinant of behavioral intention. Therefore, when individuals perceive technology as more visible and available for trial, their behavioral intention to adopt it strengthens. Using structural equation modeling for quantitative analysis, this study examines the significance of TS in terms of the intention to adopt battery electric vehicles. The findings highlight the salience of the technology show-off construct in explaining behavioral intention, underscoring its significance in the context of modern society’s characteristics. This study contributes to advances in understanding technology acceptance and highlights the importance of incorporating experiential aspects (such as TS) into the traditional technology acceptance models.

Reply to the "Comment on The Tully-Fisher law and dark matter effects derived via modified symmetries" by I. Arraut. - Arraut Guerrero, Ivan (Europhysics Letters, 2024)
It has been claimed in \cite1, that the idea proposed in \cite2 has certain mistakes based on arguments of energy conditions and others. Additionally, some of the key arguments of the paper are criticized. Here we demonstrate that the results obtained in \cite2 are correct and that there is no violation of any energy condition. The statements claimed in \cite1 are based on three things: 1). Misinterpretation of the metric solution. 2). Language issues related to the physical quantities obtained in \cite1, where the authors make wrong interpretations about certain results over the geometry proposed in \cite2. 3). Non-rigorous evaluations of the vacuum condition defined via the result over the Ricci tensor R_\mu\nu=0.

Once More with Feeling: The Debate Over Yalta Resurrected [Concluding Remarks] - Roberts, Priscilla (H-Diplo State of the Field Roundtable on the Eastern European Settlements during the Second World War: Making the Peace Amidst the War, 2024)

Teaching and learning with older adults: Research ethics, risk analysis, and covert research - Ní Bhroin, Áine; Morrison, Keith (Educational Gerontology, 2024)
This article reports a case study of older adults learning English in China. It indicates how, founded on consequentialist ethics, risk analysis, and safeguarding, it was decided to use covert research, drawing on the confluence of risk analysis, risk evaluation, risk management, safeguarding, research ethics, and important contextual and cultural features. Ethical principles of nonmaleficence, beneficence, safeguarding, and protection were addressed, and account was taken of the strength, likelihood, and consequences of risks, safeguards, and benefits, informed by Chinese cultural contexts, values, behaviors, and features of teaching and learning based on andragogy and geragogy. Implications are drawn for teaching and learning with older adults, advocating significant account to be taken of contextual factors.
_eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2024.2377872

探討澳門普通小學教師在融合教育背景下的工作相關壓力及有效應對策略 =: Exploring Work-Related Stress and Effective Coping Strategies in the Context of Inclusive Education Among Mainstream Primary Teachers in Macau - 黃家敏 (University of Saint Joseph, 2024)
Since 2006, the Government of Macau has been promoting inclusive education. This has now been ongoing for seventeen years. As education policies gradually improve, the focus has shifted from students in inclusive settings to the realm of teachers. With an increasing number of inclusive students, the corresponding work pressures faced by teachers has also increased. The aims of this study are to better understand the work-related stress, sources of stress, and subsequent coping strategies used by mainstreamteachers within the inclusive education sector of Macau. This study used qualitative research methods, interviewing twelve frontline teachers from eight different private primary educational institutions. Eight of these teachers work in schools practicing inclusive education, while four were employed in regular schools. However, all twelve participating teachers had experience in teaching inclusive students but also lacked any specialized background in special education. Following and obtaining and meticulously analyzing interview data, supported by relevant literature, the study findings are presented as follows: 1. Views and Attitudes of Regular Teachers in Inclusive Schools towards Inclusive Education The interviewed teachers support the concept of inclusive education but were concerned about student behaviors and their learning challenges. These concerns included inappropriate behaviors, learning disabilities, and the teachers’ own pedagogical demands. In managing student behaviors, teachers found it difficult to handle the emotional control of inclusive students, leading to disruptions in class. Regarding learning, teachers had to use additional and extra time on after-class tutoring, increasing their workload. Teaching inclusive students also complicated the instruction, requiring teachers to undergo additional training and preparation. 2. Work-Related Stress and its Sources among Regular Teachers within Inclusive Schools The participating teachers rated their stress-resilience as not low, but rather they experienced medium to high levels of work-related stress, mainly due to long working hours and extensive workloads. The study identifies four main sources of stress: （i） The nature of work, including extensive teaching and non-teaching tasks, including heavy class management, or multiple roles. （ii） Social relationships, where regular teachers lacked an understanding of resource teachers’ roles, leading to ineffective communication and an underutilization of resource teachers in schools. （iii） Organizational structure, where schools involved in inclusive education required improvements in facilities and teaching environments, particularly in the safety of sports areas. Additionally, not all mainstream teachers had access to inclusive education resources, and the instructional adjustments for inclusive students did not fully meet their needs. （iv） Social aspects, where the public did not fully understand the concepts of inclusive education, and expectations on teachers were excessively high. Furthermore, teachers were dissatisfied with their salaries and benefits, which they felt were not commensurate with their heavy workload. The study also found that female teachers faced additional stress from both work and family responsibilities, as they also bear the burden of caring for and educating their own children at home. 3. Responses and Coping Methods of Regular Teachers in Inclusive Schools to Work-Related Stress The study analyzed the negative impacts of work-related stress on teachers’ physical health, psychological state, and behavior. The impacts included poor sleep quality or insomnia and emotional states of worry and anxiety. In response to stress, teachers engaged in communication and social activities, exercise and rest, and dietary adjustments. However, these stress-relief methods did not effectively address the root causes of the stress, making long-term stress management a crucial issue for teachers. Based on the findings regarding stress perceptions, sources, and coping methods, the researcher proposes recommendations for teachers, educational institutions, and relevant government departments, with an aim to support and aid future policymaking in the area of inclusive education in Macau
Keywords: Thesis and Dissertations Master of Education (MED); University of Saint Joseph; 小學; 工作壓力; 應對策略; 普通教師; 融合教育

Remote Learning's Impact on Students' Cognitive Development: Evidence from Time Series Assessment [Conference presentation] - Wu, Hao; Molnár, Gyöngyvér (2024)
Remote Learning's Impact on Students' Cognitive Development: Evidence from Time Series Assessment [Conference presentation]

Adapting the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT-2) to the Acceptance of Public Policies - Lampo, Alessandro; Diakite, Ansoumane Douty; Ip, Emil Chi Hang (PROCEEDINGS OF THE 18th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE AGBRP, 2024)
The understanding of how people accept and embrace new policies is vital in today's world. This paper introduces an original way of looking at this by adapting the widely recognized Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT-2). The goal is to provide a foundational model for assessing policy acceptance. More specifically, we adapted the UTAUT-2 framework to study how Macau residents perceive the "Northbound Travel for Macau Vehicles" policy, which allows cars with Macau registration plates to enter China. Using structural equation modeling software (SmartPLS), we analyze data collected from 136 respondents who experienced the policy.Our findings reveal that Performance Expectancy (PE) and Habit (HB) significantly influence individuals' intention to take advantage of the policy. In other words, people are more likely to embrace policies they perceive as beneficial and that align with their existing habits. Effort Expectancy (EE) and Facilitating Conditions (FC) do not significantly impact acceptance, perhaps as a result of participants' familiarity with the policy and their resource availability. Surprisingly, while not directly tied to usage, Social Influence (SI) shows a high mean value, suggesting its potential role in policy acceptance when influential individuals adopt the policy. This pioneering research contributes to the field by bridging the gap between technology acceptance models and policy studies. Most importantly, it validates the use of the UTAUT-2 as a technology framework that is adapted for assessing policy acceptance.

The Role of the Country-of-Origin Effect in Driving Chinese EV Adoption: The Case of Portugal - Xian, Sitong; Lampo, Alessandro (PROCEEDINGS OF THE 18th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE AGBRP, 2024)
As environmental awareness grows, sustainable modes of transportation have garnered increasing importance. With the rising popularity of electric vehicles (EVs), a broader community now acknowledges their numerous advantages, such as lower noise levels, enhanced efficiency, and cost-effectiveness in comparison to traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. Furthermore, EVs significantly contribute to a more sustainable future by emitting fewer pollutants and reducing overall environmental impact. However, consumers' perceptions and expectations about the vehicle's country of origin - the nation where the vehicle is manufactured - remain unclear, particularly in the case of Chinese-manufactured EVs due to China's reputation for pollution and product safety concerns. This study employsa qualitative framework based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2(UTAUT-2) to assess the acceptance of Chinese electric vehicles, and the influence of the Country-of-Origin Effect (COE) on a sample of Portuguese residents. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using qualitative methods. The study's results shed light on the significance of the country of origin in shaping consumers' behavioral intentions to purchase Chinese electric vehicles, indicating a positive influence. This suggests that country of origin is a crucial factor when considering an individual's intention to adopt electric vehicles. Additionally, the research highlights the importance of various other factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, price value, hedonic motivation, and habit in shaping consumers' attitudes and intentions. Our results underscore the complexity of consumer behavior toward electric vehicles, suggesting the need for a multifaceted approach to understanding andpromoting EV adoption. Research is needed to examine the COE in different cultural and geographic contexts to develop effective strategies to enhance the global adoption of electric vehicles, particularly from countries with varying environmental reputations

Impact of Education on Green Fintech Adoption in a Smart City: Evidence from the Newly Developed Sub-city Center of Beijing. - Lei, Weng Chi; An, Boyang (2024)
Integrating financial technologies with green initiatives is critical to the sustainable development agenda. This is particularly true for newly developed smart cities like Tongzhou, the sub-city center of Beijing. To assess the adoption of green fintech in Tongzhou, this paper extends the EnergyAugmented Technology Acceptance Model (EA-TAM) to incorporate two green factors – environmental awareness and green knowledge. This paper applies structural equation modeling techniques to analyze data from 403 respondents who live, work, or study in Tongzhou and finds allhypothesized constructs significant. Since green knowledge is significant to the adoption of green fintech, this paper further divides the sample into a high-education group (162 respondents with university-or-above degrees) and a low-education group (251 respondents with post-secondary-orlower degrees) to evaluate the impact of education. All the hypothesized factors are significant to the high-education group,but environmental awareness and perceived usefulness are insignificant to the low- education group. Hence, the results provide evidence that people in the newly developed smart city adopt green fintech due to their environmental sensitivity. The adoption of green fintech is more environmentally sensitive for people with high education levels.

Impact of Education on Green Fintech Adoption in a Smart City: Evidence from the Newly Developed Sub-city Center of Beijing. - Lei, Weng Chi; An, Boyang (PROCEEDINGS OF THE 18th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE AGBRP, 2024)
Integrating financial technologies with green initiatives is critical to the sustainable development agenda. This is particularly true for newly developed smart cities like Tongzhou, the sub-city center of Beijing. To assess the adoption of green fintech in Tongzhou, this paper extends the EnergyAugmented Technology Acceptance Model (EA-TAM) to incorporate two green factors – environmental awareness and green knowledge. This paper applies structural equation modeling techniques to analyze data from 403 respondents who live, work, or study in Tongzhou and finds allhypothesized constructs significant. Since green knowledge is significant to the adoption of green fintech, this paper further divides the sample into a high-education group (162 respondents with university-or-above degrees) and a low-education group (251 respondents with post-secondary-orlower degrees) to evaluate the impact of education. All the hypothesized factors are significant to the high-education group,but environmental awareness and perceived usefulness are insignificant to the low- education group. Hence, the results provide evidence that people in the newly developed smart city adopt green fintech due to their environmental sensitivity. The adoption of green fintech is more environmentally sensitive for people with high education levels.

Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation in Western Balkans Countries - Toshevska-Trpchevska, Katerina; Lei, Weng Chi (Florence); Stojkoski, Viktor (European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 2024)
After the Covid-19 Pandemic crisis in international economic relations it became evident that climate-smart aspects should be considered when re-establishing a new international trade order. International organizations have proclaimed that this momentum should be used to include climate-smart trade and investment provisions to enable sustainable development. It has been acknowledged that trade has an important role to play in the global response to climate change, providing economies with tools to draw on in their efforts to mitigate climate change and to adapt to its consequences. In this paper we focus the analysis on investigating the digital and sustainable component of trade facilitation measures applied in Western Balkans countries. To evaluate the importance of trade facilitation measures and their digital and sustainable components we apply standard gravity model with the data from UN Global Survey on digital and sustainable trade facilitation. The results show that trade facilitation measures are important for improving and increasing trade among the Western Balkans countries. Especially, measures connected to improving transparency procedures in trade and measures for alleviating trade formalities are most significant for increasing bilateral trade among Western Balkans countries. With a lower level of importance are the measures for improving cross-border paperless trade between these countries.
Keywords: Digital and sustainable trade facilitation; UN Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation; Western Balkans countries; gravity model

The Moderating Effect of Food Neophilia on Consumers’ Intention to Use Insects as Food - Lampo, Alessandro; Sun, Hou Tong (PROCEEDINGS OF THE 18th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE AGBRP, 2024)
In a world where sustainable food choices are becoming increasingly important, this study explores the connection between food neophilia — the desire to experiment with new foods — and people's willingness to include insects in their diets. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), our research delves into how neophilia (NP) moderates respondents’ attitude (ATT), social norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) concerning the adoption of insects as a food source. The analysis draws from 160 self-administered surveys and employs structural equation modeling. Conducted in the context of Macau SAR (China), our study reveals the pivotal role that neophilia plays in shaping consumer attitudes and intentions. Notably, respondents generally expressed a willingness to explore novel culinary experiences. A positive moderating effect of neophilia on attitudes toward insect consumption is observed, suggesting that individuals with higher neophilia scores are more inclined to hold favorable intentions regarding insects as food. However, neophilia's influence on moderating SN and PBC exhibits contrasting effects, implying that a strong inclination for food neophilia may not necessarily leadto increased social pressure or perceived control in adopting insect-based diets. In light of these findings, this study recommends that practitioners and policymakers promote insect consumptionas an innovative and adventurous means of achieving sustainable nutrition. While the primary focus is on the impact of food neophilia on people's intention to consume insects as food, the study underscores the urgent need for diversified and sustainable dietary choices to address escalating environmental concerns and secure a resilient food supply for future generations.

Alignment, fitness for purpose, and fidelity in planning, conducting, and reporting research - Morrison, Keith (2024)

A Pilot Study for Measuring Complex Problem-Solving in Jordan: Feasibility, Construct Validity, and Behavior Pattern Analyses - Alrababah, Saleh Ahmad; Wu, Hao; Molnár, Gyöngyvér (Sage Open, 2024)
In the 21st century, complex problem-solving (CPS) serves as a key indicator of educational achievement. However, the elements of successful CPS have not yet been fully explored. This study investigates the role of strategic exploration and different problem-solving and test-taking behaviors in CPS success, using logfile data to visualize and quantify students’ problemsolving behavior on 10 CPS problems with different characteristics and levels of difficulty. Additionally, in the present study, we go beyond the limits of most studies that focus on students’ problem-solving behavior pattern analyses in European cultures and education systems to examine Arabic students’ CPS behavior. The results show that computer-based assessments of CPS are feasible and valid in Jordanian higher education. The findings also confirm the structural validity of CPS, indicating that the processes of knowledge acquisition (KAC) and knowledge application (KAP) can be distinguished and separated in the problem-solving process. Large differences were identified in students’ test-taking behavior in terms of the efficacy of their exploration strategy. We identified four latent classes based on the students’ exploration strategy behavior. The study thus leads to a better understanding of how students solve problems and behave during the problem-solving process in uncertain situations.

Matteo Ricci's teaching on the goodness of human nature: its Thomistic and neo‐Confucian sources - Cai, Yilun (The Heythrop Journal, 2024)
Abstract The Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci's teaching on the goodness of human nature in The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven represents the fruit of the first encounter between Catholicism and Confucianism. This article will consider the Thomistic and neo‐Confucian sources in Ricci's enunciation of the Catholic doctrine on the goodness of human nature in this Chinese catechism. It will illustrate that Ricci developed his teaching, which is fundamentally Thomistic, with the help of terminology borrowed from the Chinese philosophical tradition. His distinction between the good of nature and the good of virtue leads to prioritising the cultivation of human nature. Ricci's teaching reflects the early modern Jesuits’ appreciation of human freedom. It also displays a Catholic reaction to the sixteenth‐century neo‐Confucian intellectual trend that ignored the importance of moral cultivation.

Macao Shaped by Use – Formalizing the Vernacular Customization of the City - Soares, Nuno; Simões, Filipa (Imminent Commons: Commoning Cities: Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017, 2017)

Guide to Street Art in Macau. - Simões, Filipa (CURB Center for Architecture and Urbanism, 2023)

Diffusion of Technologies: Delivering on the Promises of Battery Electric Vehicles - Lampo, Alessandro; Silva, Susana C. (Walking the Talk? MNEs Transitioning Towards a Sustainable World, 2024)
Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are living up to their claims as consumers choose them more frequently. The increasing demand for sustainable vehicles translates into the global need for specific components, materials, and infrastructures and drives the regulatory frameworks in each country. While BEVs offer environmental benefits and global business opportunities, the technology has not yet gained mainstream acceptance. Thus, this work aims to investigate the characteristics of BEV users and their role in the diffusion of products to larger segments, as this may vary from country to country. For this purpose, a survey based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT-2) (Venkatesh et al., 2012) framework and structural equation modeling (SmartPLS) was adopted. The results indicated that, except for the constructs of effort expectancy (EE) and social influence (SI), the predictors in the model performed well in this context. Current users are satisfied with their vehicles and are supportive of BEVs in the future. The analysis also revealed that in addition to the availability of financial resources, early adopters are attracted by new technologies in a way that leads them to make decisions outside of the traditional influence of the other members of society. It is suggested to leverage the perceived benefits of status, differentiation, or uniqueness motives, to appeal to those seeking to appear trendy and tech-savvy in society. Companies and policymakers should acknowledge the peculiarities of early customers in their communication strategies to reach a wider audience around the globe and encourage the adoption of BEV technology.
Keywords: Air quality; Battery electric vehicles; Clean energy technology; Consumer behavior; Diffusion of innovations; Early adopters; International marketing

Hawking Radiation as a Manifestation of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking - Arraut, Ivan (Symmetry, 2024)
We demonstrate that black hole evaporation can be modeled as a process where one symmetry of the system is spontaneously broken continuously. We then identify three free parameters of the system. The sign of one of the free parameters governs whether the particles emitted by the black hole are fermions or bosons. The present model explains why the black hole evaporation process is so universal. Interestingly, this universality emerges naturally inside certain modifications of gravity.
Number: 5
Keywords: Hawking radiation; black holes; spontaneous symmetry breaking

Life Is not a Walk across a Field - Morrison, Keith (2024)

From ‘Mixed Methods’ to ‘Integration’ in Social Science Research - Morrison, Keith (2023)

Fintech Adoption: A Study of Users in the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin (China) - Weng, Chi Lei; Lampo, Alessandro (INTI JOURNAL, 2024)
Intended as an economic and development hub, the Hengqin Cooperation Zone aims to foster collaboration and integration between mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao, serving as a platform for economic development and innovation among the three regions. The zone's development has increased demand for financial services, often offered through fintech. There is, however, a lack of interoperability between the fintech services currently used in Macao and Hengqin. This may hinder Macao users' adoption of the technology. Thus, our research objective is to identify the factors determining Macao residents' adoption of fintech services in the area and provide insights for service providers, developers, and policymakers. A framework based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used for this purpose. The responses of 103 Macao residents provided evidence that ease of use significantly and positively impacts the usefulness of the technology. This in turn influences attitudes towards fintech usage. Subjective norms and perceived behavioral control positively impact fintech adoption intentions. The fintech industry and the governments of Macao and Hengqin can work on improving technology's ease of use and usefulness. They can also promote them to Macao users, and provide the resources required for better access to fintech in the zone
Number: 02

Impacts of Central Bank Digital Currency on Regional Economic Integration: Evidence from the Greater Bay Area of China - Lei, Weng Chi; Wang, Xinru (The Chinese Economy, 2024)
An increasing number of countries have launched their central bank digital currencies (CBDC) in recent years, but the economic impacts of CBDC adoption are underexplored. To empirically assess how CBDC adoption influences regional economic integration, this paper investigates the Greater Bay Area, where China carried out one of its first digital renminbi pilot programs. The Greater Bay Area provides a good example because the growing acceptance of digital renminbi in the area can potentially mitigate transaction costs and risks due to the exchange rate volatility of the Chinese renminbi, Hong Kong dollar, and Macao pataca. CBDC adoption can lead to greater real and financial integrations by facilitating cross-border trade in goods and services. This paper evaluates deviations from uncovered interest rate parity, purchasing power parity, and real interest rate parity across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao based on monthly interest rate and price data from January 2016 to December 2022. The time series have mean values near zero, which validate the parity conditions and indicate high degrees of financial, real, and economic integrations. The Markov regime-switching regression model identifies three regimes: (1) pre-Covid, (2) post-Covid, and (3) post-CBDC. The Covid-19 outbreak brought lower integration and stability, but the launch of the CBDC restored some of the pre-Covid integration and stability. Regimes 1 and 2 are persistent, and transitions from Regime 3 back to Regime 1 are probable. Hence, this study finds evidence that CBDC adoption improves regional economic integration in the short and long run.
_eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/10971475.2024.2333124
Keywords: Central bank digital currency; Greater Bay Area; digital renminbi; economic integration; financial integration

Revenue Management in Airlines and External Factors Affecting Decisions: The Harmonic Oscillator Model - Arraut, Ivan; Rosado, Wilson; Leong, Victor (Mathematics, 2024)
The Revenue Management (RM) problem in airlines for a fixed capacity, single resource and two classes has been solved before by using a standard formalism. In this paper we propose a model for RM by using the semi-classical approach of the Quantum Harmonic Oscillator. We then extend the model to include external factors affecting the people’s decisions, particularly those where collective decisions emerge.
Number: 6
Keywords: collective decisions; harmonic oscillator; revenue management; spontaneous symmetry breaking

“To Listen to the Language of Nature and to Act Accordingly” :: Natural Law as Beacon guiding to Human Flourishing and Ecological Civilization - Gassner, Franz (Orientis Aura: Macau Perspectives in Religious Studies, 2021)
The article sets off from a speech given by Benedict XVI in the German Bundestag in 2011, where he requested an ecological learning process to aim at sustainable human development. Appreciating the Ecological Movement, he asked to learn to listen to Nature’s language and act accordingly, which he applies analogically to “human ecology”. The article bridges elements of “Listening to Nature” and the Natural Moral Law Tradition in Benedict’s speech and in Francis’ Encyclical Letter Laudatu Si’ inview of serving human flourishing in an ecological civilization. Keywords: Natural Moral Law; Nature, Laudatu Si’, Benedict XVI, Francis; Ecological Civilization/生態文明, Sustainable Development, Ecology of Man.
Number: 6

Message from Program Chairs - Ma, J.; Du, W.; Lu, W. (Proceedings - 2022 IEEE/ACIS 22nd International Conference on Computer and Information Science, ICIS 2022, 2022)
ISBN: 9781665494632

Foreword - Ma, J.; Du, W.; Lu, W. (Studies in Computational Intelligence, 2023)
ISBN: 9783031121265

Exploring the Current Landscape and Future Directions of Information Technology in Dance Education - Du, Wencai; Chen, Jiao; Xu, Simon (2023 26th ACIS International Winter Conference on Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Parallel/Distributed Computing (SNPD-Winter), 2023)
Dance education has undergone significant changes with the integration of information technology. Traditional dance pedagogy is now complemented by innovative digital software tools and applications. This work surveys the diverse applications of information technology in dance education at college or university level and the impact it has on teaching and learning processes. We discuss the integration of technology in various aspects of dance education, including skill development, choreography, performance analysis, VR/AR, online virtual learning, and collaborative learning. Additionally, the benefits and challenges associated with the use of information technology are also examined and the future research directions for research and practice in this field are proposed.
Keywords: College and University Education; Dance Education; Education; Federated learning; Humanities; Information Technology; Interactive; Surveys; Technical requirements; Training; Visualization; applications

Does Romans 2:14 Refer to the Natural Law? - Leong, Chi Hei (Orientis Aura: Macau Perspectives in Religious Studies, 2021)
Whilst after decades of research, exegetes have all agree on the complexity of Paul’s line of thinking in Rom 2:14–16, the ITC in its 2009 document, In Search of a Universal Ethic, still in an oversimplified manner propagates the view that Rom 2:14 presupposes a theory/theology of the natural law. This article makes plain the major disagreements among Pauline exegetes whether such presupposition stands by reviewing some major contributions to the discussion by raising major questions regarding the issue of φύσει in those verses, the nature of the law mentioned by Paul, the identity of the people Paul calls “Gentiles.” This article offers a more nuanced understanding of Rom 2:14. Keywords: Rom 2:14, ITC, Universal Ethic, Natural Law, φύσει, Gentiles
Number: 6

Re-experiencing Street Signage with Augmented Reality around the City of Macau - Lio, Si Weng; Martins de Abreu, F. (Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts (ARTECH2023), 2023)

Empirical Studies on the Conditions of Achieving Interactive Mindfulness Through Virtual Reality Single User Experience in Macao - Olga Ng Ka Man, Sandra; Caires, Carlos Sena (Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2023, 2023)
Virtual reality, a computer-generated 3D environment, allows one to navigate and possibly interact, resulting in real-time simulation of one or more of the user’s five senses (Gutierrez et al., 2008; Vince, 2004). Virtual tours and places have swiftly become popular in education, professional training, arts, exhibitions, and medication and rehabilitation. The empirical studies derived from the PhD thesis research aim to identify the conditions for Macao’s single-user experience to achieve mindfulness in virtual reality through immersion and interactivity.
Keywords: Single user experience; immersion; interactivity; mindfulness; virtual reality

Alcatraz revisited - Morrison, Keith (Macau Business, 2022)

The business of social justice in Macau - Morrison, Keith (Macau Business, 2023)
Macau, Macau Business, MAG, MB, MB Featured, Opinion | As Macau rebuilds its post-pandemic economy, one could be forgiven for believing that the good life for all has arrived, as evidenced in the manifest opulence on display in its up-market shopping malls. However, this is not the case; social justice needs attention in Macau.
Section: Macau Business

Linguistic and economic capital in Macau - Morrison, Keith (Macau Business, 2023)
Macau, Macau Business, MAG, MB, MB Featured, Opinion | Macau wisely looks to mainland China, South-East Asia, and Portuguese-speaking countries, as part of its economic diversification. However, to be a player on the international stage and world-wide market, it must look wider, and, hence, the standard of English in Macau must improve dramatically and urgently.
Section: MAG

Chatting about chatting - Morrison, Keith (Macau Business, 2023)
Macau, Macau Business, MAG, MB, MB Featured, Opinion | Many employers in Macau expect their employees to have received higher education (HE). This returns to the endless question of what HE is for; is it for job knowledge and skills acquisition, attitude development, thinking abilities, creativity, problem solving, how to learn, or what? What and whose knowledge?
Section: Macau Business

Sunshine and shadows - Morrison, Keith (Macau Business, 2023)
Macau, Macau Business, MAG, MB, MB Featured, Opinion | The recent euphoria over Macau’s economic resurrection should not mask the long-standing challenges facing its society and values. Sunshine creates shadows in which can lurk a range of pathologies.
Section: Macau Business

Games of chance - Morrison, Keith (Macau Business, 2023)
Macau, Macau Business, MAG, MB, MB Featured, Opinion | Here we are, back in full-throttle summer tourism in tiny Macau, with visitors galore, lines of tourist coaches everywhere, and the casinos back on course to welcome gamblers. However, gambling reaches much wider than Macau’s casinos.
Section: Macau Business

Conditional internationalism in Macau - Morrison, Keith (Macau Business, 2023)
Macau, Macau Business, MAG, MB, MB Featured, Opinion | Just when diversification is the name of the game in Macau, and with the manifold benefits of diversity that internationals can bring, how sensible is it to treat its international non-resident workers so poorly, and with lamentable transparency and accountability?
Section: MAG

Dreaming of diversification - Morrison, Keith (Macau Business, 2023)
Macau, Macau Business, MAG, MB, MB Featured, Opinion | Once upon a time there was a cockerel who succumbed to flattery when a wily fox told him that he had the most magnificent singing voice, especially when he sang with his eyes closed tightly.
Section: MAG

Santa Claus is not coming to everyone in Macau - Morrison, Keith (Macau Business, 2023)
Macau, Macau Business, MAG, MB, MB Featured, Opinion | Macau Business | December 2023 Keith Morrison – Author and educationist
Section: Macau Business

Perspectives of Local Communities on the Impact of Chinese Aid: A Case Study of China's Aid Projects in the Education Sector in Guinea - Diakite, Ansoumane Douty (Journal of Globalization Studies, 2023)
China's re-emergence as an aid donor has attracted the attention and criticism from Western donors, academia, and the media. In contrast to traditional donors, China's aid has been portrayed as anti-poverty aid, mainly due to its combination with other instruments, such as investment, and the absence of any political or economic conditions. This paper examines the impact of Chinese aid projects in Guinea's education sector from the perspective of the beneficiaries. The author collected data from both primary (interviews) and secondary (document analysis) sources. The present study concludes that China's aid projects in the education sector have received both positive and negative feedback, mainly because the recipients' needs have not been appropriately targeted. This study contributes to the literature on China's role in Africa. More specifically, it discusses the conditions for aid effectiveness in the field of education. Moreover, in the context of the globalization of aid practices, the study proposes best practices for China to adopt in order to improve the practices of its aid delivery. The novelty of this study lies in the methodology (qualitative method) used to understand China's aid from the perspective of the beneficiaries of its aid.

The concept of “Object-image” revisited through the interactive-film installation “Sense of Place - Caires, C. S; Estadieu, G (2020)

Design Thinking Methodology and Text-To-Image Artificial Intelligence: A Case Study in the Context of Furniture Design Education - Caires, Carlos Sena; Estadieu, Gerald; Olga Ng Ka Man, Sandra (Perspectives on Design and Digital Communication IV: Research, Innovations and Best Practices, 2024)
The design thinking methodology is a problem-solving approach that involves empathising with end-users, (re)defining problems, brainstorming solutions creatively, and experimenting with prototypes and testing. It has been widely adopted in education to help students develop critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills in design. On the other hand, text-to-image artificial intelligence is a method used to generate images from natural language descriptors (usually referred to as prompts). Design thinking methodology can teach students to think creatively and critically about real-world problems when applied in the classroom. In the context of design teaching at the University of Saint Joseph, Macao, students use the design thinking methodology to develop innovative proposals for furniture design solutions. Combining design thinking methodologies with text-to-image artificial intelligence can further enhance the learning experience by allowing students to generate visual representations of their ideas during the ideation phase. The authors developed a systematic approach to generate images for ideation on furniture design based on prompting text-to-image (PTI). The analysis related students’ results who applied the design thinking methodology without using AI tools and the results generated using a standard text-to-image programme. By combining both methods, teachers can help students develop critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills, while also allowing them to generate visual representations in a different paradigm and, by so, being able to communicate their ideas with the most appropriate support for them.
Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Design thinking; Education quality; Furniture design education; Text-to-image prompt

Book of Proceedings of ARTeFACTo2022MACAO, Third International Conference on Digital Creation in Arts, Media and Technology - Emerging Extended Realities. 24-25 Nov. 2022, Macao. IEEE ISBN 979-8-3503-1004-7 - Estadieu, Gerald (2022 Third International Conference on Digital Creation in Arts, Media and Technology (ARTeFACTo), 2022)

Static recording apparatus for soundscape analysis in Macau - Estadieu, Gerald; Cheung, Yin Yan; Pestana, Pedro Duarte; Barbosa, Alvaro (INTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings, 2023)
The concept of Soundscape was initially proposed to study the relationship between humans and their sonic environment. It has gathered momentum from academia to environmentalists and policymakers throughout the years. The study and characterisation of Soundscapes can be complex as it tries to take a holistic and qualitative approach rather than simply quantifying sound pressure levels. This paper introduces a comprehensive Soundscape study process in an ongoing research project in Macao (China), a small territory (32.9 km2) and one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The paper seeks to show a first version of a technical solution to systematically capture the local soundscape, analyse it, classify it, and ultimately deliver a dataset library and the intangible qualities of the environmental sound. This implementation, including technical documentation, code, and sound library with strong labelling, is presented under an open-source license to encourage future collaborative research. Finally, the paper offers suggestions on further developing the apparatus to reach a systematic and near real-time soundscape analysis with the development of a machine learning system.

Radial String Chimes: A Behavioural Driven Tangible Instrument Derived from Networked Music Performance Practices - Barbosa, Alvaro; Olga Ng Ka Man, Sandra; Estadieu, G (Proceedings of UbiMus2023, II- Ubiquitous Music Symposium, 2023)
Research in ubiquitous networked music systems has unveiled the potential of behavioural-driven interaction interfaces as an effective model to cope with network communication delays in remote musical performances. Most of the techniques developed under these premises are based on digital music interfaces implemented on laptop computers or tablet devices, where a certain degree of gestural control comes as an added dimension. The purpose of this paper is to present an implementation of such type of interfaces in the form of a physical tangible musical instrument, contemplating multiple expressive possibilities. This is viable at the current stage of technological development thanks to leveraging 3D printing and laser cutting technologies for effective prototyping and testing of such a device. The paper seeks to demonstrate that this approach opens a wide range of possibilities for creating musical instruments with versatility and expressiveness beyond what is usually accomplished in traditional instruments. This implementation, entitled “Radial String Chimes,” is presented with its advantages, the challenges it faces, and the methods used to create it. Finally, the paper will offer suggestions for further developing such an instrument to unlock its potential.

AI-based Multimodal Qualitative Mapping of Macao Soundscape - Estadieu, G; Cheung, Y.Y. (2023)

SOUNDSCAPE.AI - A Sonic Perspectives on Macau - Estadieu, G (2023)

Beyond Physical Boundaries—Organising a Virtual Exhibiton with NFTs for an International Conference - Estadieu, Gerald; Ng, S.O.K.M.; Martins de Abreu, F.; Farinha, D.F. (11th International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts (ARTECH 2023), 2023)

Tracing Modern Macau’s Evolving Global Role Views from Transnational Archives - Roberts, Priscilla (2023)

Macau's First Modern University: Exploring the Early History of the University of East Asia - Roberts, Priscilla (2023)

Unsettling Exiles: Chinese Migrants in Hong Kong and the Southern Periphery During the Cold War Angelina Y. Chin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2023. 320 pp., $35.00; £30.00, ISBN 9780231209991. - Roberts, Priscilla (The China Quarterly, 2023)
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Death of a salesman? the new junket regulation and practice in macau - Ho, Hong-Wai; Phillips, Jenny (Gaming Law Review, 2023)
This review article is among the first to examine the new junket regulations in the Macau gaming industry. Particular emphasis is on the legal and regulatory framework governing the junket activity of gaming promoters and their associates. The recent changes to Macau gaming laws have resulted in stronger licensing requirements for local junket participants and precipitated the collapse of the VIP room system in casinos. Furthermore, this article highlights the policy and managerial implications of the current junket environment for the gaming industry in Macau and possibly other regional gaming jurisdictions. The effects of the new legal environment for Macau junkets could also provide insights into the implementation of similar legislation in other jurisdictions.
Keywords: Macao; VIP room; gambling; gaming regulation; international gaming; junket operation

Factors influencing disability inclusion practice on social media - Chan, Joye Wai Peng; Phillips, Jenny O.L. (Proceedings of the 2023 14th International Conference on E-business, Management and Economics, 2023)
Digital inclusion in Macao is in the very beginning stage, and disability inclusion practice on social media in producing and promoting accessible social media content and needs is hard to find. This study aims to analyse the factors that influence communication staff's practice of disability inclusion on social media by using the combined employee behaviour and communication process model to provide suggestions to management who wants to promote disability inclusion practice on social media.The Service Centre for the Deaf of the Macau Deaf Association (MDA) was selected as the object for this case study. The online social media used for MDA's communication was analysed, and semi-structured in-depth interviews with members of the Association were conducted. The research findings showed that, except for the reward structure, factors examined from the work environment in terms of organisation, supervision and co-workers; communication staff themselves; outcomes of accessible social media communication; audience and feedbacks show relations with disability inclusion practices on social media. The delivery of inclusive culture, the influential power of disability stakeholders and the positioning of social media platforms are the key influencing factors.The interesting part of this study is that people without disabilities seem to be excluded from the disability inclusion practice carried out on MDA's Facebook. Their social media content is highly accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences yet seems not to involve the general public. The study object is a good model for producing accessible content, yet the optimisation of promoting social media accessibility needs further exploration.
Keywords: Accessible Social Media (ASM); Disability Employment; Disability Inclusion; Macau Deaf Association

Monitor or On-site? Macau kindergartener parents’ learning experience in face-to-face and online parent education seminars - Ng, M. H.; Leong, K. I. Q.; Mak, M. C. K.; Cheng, P. W.; Ho, G. W. S; Chan, A. O. K.; Tse, T. P. M. (2021)

Developing programs for preschool children to enhance Chinese literacy: A Macau-based example. - Chu, K. W.; Mak, M. C. K.; Tse, T. P. M.; Cheng, P. W.; Ho, G. W. S; Ng, M. H. (2023)

Reciprocity in a school-university partnership project: Towards a Macau-based Give-Get Model - Chu, K. W.; Mak, M. C. K.; Ng, M. H.; Wong, U. W. K.; Cheng, P. W.; Tse, T. P. M.; Ho, G. W. S (2023)

語文童樂學前語文學習卡 – 花兒級 - 鄭佩芸; 麥紫均 (聖若瑟大學出版社, 2022)

語文童樂學前語文學習卡 – 葉芽級 - 鄭佩芸; 麥紫均 (聖若瑟大學出版社, 2022)

語文童樂學前語文兒歌集 – 果子級 - 鄭佩芸; 麥紫均 (聖若瑟大學出版社, 2022)

語文童樂學前語文學習卡 – 果子級 - 鄭佩芸; 麥紫均 (聖若瑟大學出版社, 2022)

《學會閱讀》叢書第二輯 - 鄭佩芸; 麥紫均 (聖若瑟大學出版社, 2022)

《學會閱讀》叢書第一輯 - 鄭佩芸; 麥紫均 (聖若瑟大學出版社, 2022)

Exploring EEG Signal Features for Predicting Post Cardiac Arrest Prognosis - Guilherme Cunha Santos, Antonio; Alexandre Lobo Marques, Joao; Rigo Jr., Luis; Paulo Madeiro, João (2023)

Machine learning-based cardiac activity non-linear analysis for discriminating COVID-19 patients with different degrees of severity - Ribeiro, Pedro; Marques, João Alexandre Lobo; Pordeus, Daniel; Zacarias, Laíla; Leite, Camila Ferreira; Sobreira-Neto, Manoel Alves; Peixoto, Arnaldo Aires; de Oliveira, Adriel; Madeiro, João Paulo do Vale; Rodrigues, Pedro Miguel (Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, 2024)
Objective: This study highlights the potential of an Electrocardiogram (ECG) as a powerful tool for early diagnosis of COVID-19 in critically ill patients with limited access to CT–Scan rooms. Methods: In this investigation, 3 categories of patient status were considered: Low, Moderate, and Severe. For each patient, 2 different body positions have been used to collect 2 ECG signals. Then, from each collected signal, 10 non-linear features (Energy, Approximate Entropy, Logarithmic Entropy, Shannon Entropy, Hurst Exponent, Lyapunov Exponent, Higuchi Fractal Dimension, Katz Fractal Dimension, Correlation Dimension and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis) were extracted every 1s ECG time-series length to serve as entries for 19 Machine learning classifiers within a leave-one-out cross-validation procedure. Four different classification scenarios were tested: Low vs. Moderate, Low vs. Severe, Moderate vs. Severe and one Multi-class comparison (All vs. All). Results: The classification report results were: (1) Low vs. Moderate - 100% of Accuracy and 100% of F1–Score; (2) Low vs. Severe - Accuracy of 91.67% and an F1–Score of 94.92%; (3) Moderate vs. Severe - Accuracy of 94.12% and an F1–Score of 96.43%; and (4) All vs All - 78.57% of Accuracy and 84.75% of F1–Score. Conclusion: The results indicate that the applied methodology could be considered a good tool for distinguishing COVID-19’s different severity stages using ECG signals. Significance: The findings highlight the potential of ECG as a fast and effective tool for COVID-19 examination. In comparison to previous studies using the same database, this study shows a 7.57% improvement in diagnostic accuracy for the All vs All comparison.
Keywords: Accuracy; COVID-19; ECG signals; Machine learning classifiers; Non-linear analysis; –

Aspects that constitute citizens’ trust in e-government - A review and framework development - Lai, Chimeng; Marques, Alexandre Joao Lobo (Multidisciplinary Reviews, 2024)
The extent of citizens' trust in government determines the success or failure of e-government initiatives. Nevertheless, the idiosyncrasies of the concept and the broad spectrum of its approach still present relevant challenges. This work presents a systematic literature review on e-government trust while elaborating and summarizing a conceptual analysis of trust, introducing evaluation methods for government trust, and compiling relevant research on e-government trust and intentional behavior. A total of 26 key factors that constitute trust have been identified and classified into six categories: Government trust, Trust in Internet and technology (TiIT), Trust in e-government (TiEG), Personal Beliefs, Trustworthiness, and Trust of intermediary (ToI). The value added of this work consists of developing a conceptual framework of TiEG to provide a significant reference for future in-depth studies and research on e-government trust.
Keywords: Systematic Literature Review (SLR); framework; trust; trust in e-government

Exploratory Analysis of Project Management Adoption and Maturity Level of IT Companies–A Comparison between Macao and Hengqin - Wong, Ka Seng; Lobo Marques, João Alexandre (Journal of Advanced Management Science, 2023)

An Exploratory Comparison of Stock Prices Prediction using Multiple Machine Learning Approaches based on Hong Kong Share Market - Lin, Chinyang; Lobo Marques, João Alexandre (Proceedings of the 2023 14th International Conference on E-business, Management and Economics, 2023)
Stock price prediction has always been challenging due to its volatility and unpredictability. This paper performs a preliminary exploratory comparison that utilizes Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms to forecast the stock market in Hong Kong. It considers a public dataset publicly available and uses feature engineering to extract relevant features. Then, LSTM and SVM algorithms are applied to predict stock prices. Our results show that the proposed machine learning techniques can predict stock prices in Hong Kong's share market with the error metrics presented, and, for this purpose, LSTM achieved better results than SVM, with MSE = 0.0026, RMSE = 0.0508, MAE = 0.0406, and MAPE = 1.325.
Keywords: Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM); Machine Learning; Stock price prediction; Support Vector Machine (SVM); Time-series analysis

Facial expression for marketing and consumer behavior: A Bibliometric analysis from 2013-2023 using Data Visualization Tools - Qian, Cheng; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre (Proceedings of the 2023 14th International Conference on E-business, Management and Economics, 2023)
The classification of emotions based on facial expressions have been a new topic of research in recent years, especially in marketing and consumer behavior areas. However, there is lack of studies to understand how the research topic is developed in terms of bibliometric data. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to provide a bibliometric analysis of the research on the analysis of facial expressions for marketing and consumer behavior, identifying the state of the art, the latest research direction, and other indicators. We extracted data from Web of Science (WOS) platform, considering its core database, resulting in a total of 117 articles. The software Vosviewer was used to analyze the data and graphically visualize the results. This study indicates some of the most influential authors citations and coupling analysis in this specific field, identifies journals with the most published articles, and provide trends of the research area based on the analysis of keywords and corresponding number of articles per year. The results shows that 11 articles (9.4%) were cited more than 100 times, and the two most prolific authors published 5 articles, and the two most influential authors are Bouaziz Sofien and Pauly mark(270 citations) in this field. Of the 117 articles retrieved by WOS, more than 70% were published in high impact journals. The bibliometric analysis of the existing work in this study provides a valuable and reliable reference for researchers in this field and makes a reasonable prediction of the research direction trends.
Keywords: Bibliometric analysis; Consumer; Facial expression; Marketing; Research; VOSviewer

Neuromarketing As A Tool To Measure And Evaluate The Consumer Behaviour Of Guanding Teahouse's Social Media Advertisement - Zeng, Ian Mei; Lobo Marques, Joao Alexandre (Proceedings of the 2023 14th International Conference on E-business, Management and Economics, 2023)
This research aims to evaluate a Macau tea brand's social media advertising effectiveness with neuromarketing tools, including physiological monitoring that can measure emotional arousal. This research bridges the gap of social media marketing on Instagram for brands through the neuromarketing method. Data from 40 respondents were collected with iMotions software using neuroscientific tools. This research uses the stimuli of Guanding Teahouse, a newly established Macau tea brand, to evaluate social media advertising effectiveness. The neuroscientific tools – Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) sensors, Eye-tracking, Facial Expression Analysis (FEA) and emotion analysis are used to do the experiment. The data analysis was drawn from one representative respondent to measure the emotions and attention on the Instagram advertisements. Video 1 recorded 9 GSR peaks and Video 2 recorded 12 GSR peaks, both videos attention is ranging between 96-98 indexes. Results show that advertising videos should focus more on the products than the model. Moreover, the participant is more interested in Video 2, but the effectiveness of advertising is showing a lower focus on the brand and the tea. Future studies should consider comparing the video advertising effectiveness of Instagram stories and Instagram reels to prevent disruption of video on the stories ad.

Enforcement of arbitral awards in Macau - Diakite, Ansoumane Douty (LexisNexis, 2024)
Under Macau Arbitration Law (MAL, art 64.1), an award shall be made in writing and shall be signed by the arbitrator or arbitrators. Furthermore, the law provides that in case of arbitral proceedings with more than one arbitrator, the signatures of the majority of all members of the arbitral tribunal shall suffice, provided that the reason for any omitted signature is stated (MAL, art 64.2).
Publisher: LexisNexis

澳門特殊與融合教育的發展及教師培訓 - Ge, Rochelle Yun (2023)

課程變革的趨勢和具澳門特色的課程發展 - Ge, Rochelle Yun (2023)

Career trajectory and cross-system mobility: Career planning of doctoral students in Macao - Ge, Yun (Higher Education Quarterly, 2024)
This study investigates career trajectory and work locations of doctoral students trained in Macao and analyses how their career paths are shaped by perceived macro-level factors. Respondents from four applied disciplinary areas were selected for semi-structured in-depth interviews. Research results show that doctoral students who graduated from Macao higher education institutions enjoy good career prospects in Mainland China. Their competitiveness in the research-related job market benefits from having a multi-level support system and a training mode that promotes government–university–industry collaboration. Policies and demand from industrial sectors are involved in students' learning experience through channels such as financial support, project collaboration and networks. Doctoral students in Macao are strategic planners and actors in leveraging their human capital. As Macao becomes an emerging destination for cultivating high-level research labour, findings from this study capture a model of human capital formation in China's cross-system context.
_eprint: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/hequ.12474
Keywords: career trajectory; cross-system mobility; doctoral education; employability; human capital formation

Impacts of Policies and Infrastructure on the Usage of Electric Vehicles in Macao - Weng Chi Lei; Tai, On Teng (2023)
Publisher: Unpublished

Java面向对象程序设计 - 梁胜彬 (清华大学出版社, 2023)
结合实用案例讲解Java语法、面向对象程序设计技术和核心API。 全书共10章，内容涵盖Java概述、Java语法基础、面向对象基础、面向对象高级技术、 Java API、异常处理机制、Java I/O流、多线程、Java GUI编程和Java网络编程等知识要点。案例丰富，以JDK 17和IntelliJ IDEA等流行的开发环境为依托，力求让读者通过案例 掌握Java编程技术。另一个特色是在阐释专业内容的同时自然融入思政元素， 具有鲜明的时代性和引领性。 可作为普通高等院校计算机、软件工程、人工智能等专业“面向对象程序设计”“Java程序设计”课程的教材，也适 合编程爱好者自学和培训使用。

A Model of Integrating Bert and BiGRU+ Attention Dual-channel Mechanism for Investor Sentiment Analysis of Stock Price Forecast - Ma, Huawei; Ma, Jixin; Liang, Shengbin; Du, Wencai (2022 IEEE/ACIS 23rd International Conference on Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Parallel/Distributed Computing (SNPD), 2022)
Investor sentiment and emotions have a strong impact on financial markets. In recent years there has been increasing interest in analyzing the sentiment of investors for stock price prediction using machine learning. Existing prediction models mostly depend on the analysis of trading data and company profit. few prediction theories have been built based on individual investors' sentiments. The fundamental reason is the difficulty to measure individual investors' sentiment.

LSDA-APF: A Local Obstacle Avoidance Algorithm for Unmanned Surface Vehicles Based on 5G Communication Environment - Li, Xiaoli; Jiao, Tongtong; Ma, Jinfeng; Duan, Dongxing; Liang, Shengbin (Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, 2023)
In view of the complex marine environment of navigation, especially in the case of multiple static and dynamic obstacles, the traditional obstacle avoidance algorithms applied to unmanned surface vehicles (USV) are prone to fall into the trap of local optimization. Therefore, this paper proposes an improved artificial potential field (APF) algorithm, which uses 5G communication technology to communicate between the USV and the control center. The algorithm introduces the USV discrimination mechanism to avoid the USV falling into local optimization when the USV encounter different obstacles in different scenarios. Considering the various scenarios between the USV and other dynamic obstacles such as vessels in the process of performing tasks, the algorithm introduces the concept of dynamic artificial potential field. For the multiple obstacles encountered in the process of USV sailing, based on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS), the USV determines whether the next step will fall into local optimization through the discrimination mechanism. The local potential field of the USV will dynamically adjust, and the reverse virtual gravitational potential field will be added to prevent it from falling into the local optimization and avoid collisions. The objective function and cost function are designed at the same time, so that the USV can smoothly switch between the global path and the local obstacle avoidance. The simulation results show that the improved APF algorithm proposed in this paper can successfully avoid various obstacles in the complex marine environment, and take navigation time and economic cost into account.

A Multi-Channel Text Sentiment Analysis Model Integrating Pre-training Mechanism - Liang, Shengbin; Jin, Jiangyong; Du, Wencai; Qu, Shenming (Information Technology and Control, 2023)
The number of tourist attractions reviews, travel notes and other texts has grown exponentially in the Internet age. Effectively mining users’ potential opinions and emotions on tourist attractions, and helping to provide users with better recommendation services, which is of great practical significance. This paper proposes a multi-channel neural network model called Pre-BiLSTM combined with a pre-training mechanism. The model uses a combination of coarse and fine- granularity strategies to extract the features of text information such as reviews and travel notes to improve the performance of text sentiment analysis. First, we construct three channels and use the improved BERT and skip-gram methods with negative sampling to vectorize the word-level and vocabulary-level text, respectively, so as to obtain more abundant textual information. Second, we use the pre-training mechanism of BERT to generate deep bidirectional language representation relationships. Third, the vectors of the three channels are input into the BiLSTM network in parallel to extract global and local features. Finally, the model fuses the text features of the three channels and classifies them using SoftMax classifier. Furthermore, numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate that Pre-BiLSTM outperforms the baselines by 6.27%, 12.83% and 18.12% in average in terms of accuracy, precision and F1-score.
Number: 2
Keywords: Pre-training mechanism

A medical text classification approach with ZEN and capsule network - Liang, Shengbin; Sun, Fuqi; Sun, Haoran; Chen, Tingting; Du, Wencai (The Journal of Supercomputing, 2023)
Text classification is an important topic in natural language processing, with the development of social network, many question-and-answer pairs regarding health-care and medicine flood social platforms. It is of great social value to mine and classify medical text and provide targeted medical services for patients. The existing algorithms of text classification can deal with simple semantic text, especially in the field of Chinese medical text, the text structure is complex and includes a large number of medical nomenclature and professional terms, which are difficult for patients to understand. We propose a Chinese medical text classification model using a BERT-based Chinese text encoder by N-gram representations (ZEN) and capsule network, which represent feature uses the ZEN model and extract the features by capsule network, we also design a N-gram medical dictionary to enhance medical text representation and feature extraction. The experimental results show that the precision, recall and F1-score of our model are improved by 10.25%, 11.13% and 12.29%, respectively, compared with the baseline models in average, which proves that our model has better performance.
Keywords: Capsule network; Medical text classification; Text mining; ZEN model

Integrating digital technologies during the COVID-19 kindergarten suspension period in Hong Kong. - Hu, X.; Yelland, N.; Leung, W. M. V.; Liang, Y.; Sun, C. R.; Graham, C. R. (Digital Technologies and Early Childhood in China: Policy and Practice, 2024)

Relationship between Student Teachers' Beliefs and Practices on Early Chinese Literacy Instruction - Sun, Chunrong; Ho, Ka Lee Carrie (Universal Journal of Educational Research, 2023)
This study explores the relationship between student teachers' beliefs and practices in early Chinese literacy instruction. Semi-structured interviews, classroom observation, and document analysis were conducted with six student teachers during their teaching practices. Findings indicated that the student teachers believed explicitly teaching literacy skills and imperceptible acquisition of literacy abilities through communication and meaning-making processes are essential in Chinese early literacy learning. However, they mainly taught Chinese literacy skills in their practices, which means the student teachers still needed to practice what they preached fully. The study suggests that possible reasons for the discrepancies include 'direct teaching' and 'rote learning' might be much easier for student teachers to design and conduct a lesson. Student teachers have limited abilities and experiences in conducting an ideal lesson, and the kindergarten curriculum and onsite supervisors highly influenced their teaching practices. The findings from this study suggested that more operational activities (such as designing lesson plans and conducting micro-teaching) should be used during pre-service training. Furthermore, the communication of educational beliefs between the university supervisor and the onsite supervisor should be strengthened.