Abstract This study aims to systematically evaluate machine learning (ML) applications in rural agricultural contexts, a critical yet underrepresented area in the literature. Unlike prior reviews focusing on high-tech farming environments, this research uniquely centers on smallholder and resource-constrained systems to explore the intersection of ML, sustainable agriculture, and rural development. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) following PRISMA guidelines was performed. After screening (N = 496 articles included), we analyzed publications from 2000 to 2024 (search conducted on 15 June 2025). Quantitative findings show a fourfold increase in publications between 2019 and 2024 and that CNN-based methods were used in approximately 8% of image-based studies (see Results for breakdown). The analytical process encompassed five structured stages: data importation, descriptive analysis, interactive visualization, linkage analysis, and insight extraction, ensuring analytical rigor and replicability. The results reveal that although ML technologies such as CNNs, SVMs, and LSTM networks are increasingly used for crop monitoring, disease detection, and irrigation management, their deployment remains predominantly confined to well-resourced agricultural systems. Rural applications face persistent challenges, including limited digital infrastructure, data scarcity, and low digital literacy. Moreover, digital systems have improved rural education processes, showing potential for broader agricultural applications. This study contributes by identifying methodological trends and context-specific gaps, offering a roadmap for developing adaptable, low-cost ML solutions. This review excluded non-English publications and restricted access content for reproducibility of reported methods, which may bias results towards English-language and open-access outlets. To quantify potential bias, we conducted an exploratory search (not included in the primary dataset) which identified 8% additional non-English records in the same query terms — suggesting a non-trivial contribution of non-English literature. Future reviews should expand to non-English sources and include more extensive searches of regional databases to reduce language bias.
Objective: Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) can support effective asthma self-management interventions, improving patients’ quality of life while reducing costs for healthcare systems. This article aims to identify trends in app features relevant to the future development of reliable mHealth asthma support applications that can meet the challenges of the new century. Methods: The search of the PubMed database was performed during August–September 2025. The database was searched electronically using the following keywords: digital AND asthma AND apps. Thirty review articles and international studies were included. The studies encompassed the period from 2015 to September 2025. Only articles available in the English language were included. Results: All selected apps were compared across categories such as availability for unrestricted use, functionality and design, ease of use, and information management and medical accuracy. Features preferred by asthma and allergy patients were also reviewed, including guidance for emergency situations, asthma action plans, and notifications from clinics. Despite the wide variety of medical apps available, only a limited number have been tested in clinical environments, and few have been translated into languages other than English. Conclusion: mHealth apps have considerable potential for asthma self-management not only in adults but also in children, and they can improve quality of life and symptom control compared with conventional treatment methods. App design, maintenance, and update practices vary widely across apps and platforms. This article will assist in identifying apps that are most suitable for specific user groups and may help guide the future development of robust and easy-to-use mHealth apps for asthma management.
Muath Algazo, Bilal Alsharif, Rula Abu-Elrob
et al.
This study examines emphasis spread (ES) in Urban Jordanian Arabic (UJA), focusing on the phonological and phonetic mechanisms that govern its direction and domain. Emphasis, realized through tongue root retraction, affects both consonants and vowels and can propagate bidirectionally within the phonological word. Using autosegmental phonology, feature geometry, and Optimality Theory (OT), this research identifies coronal emphatics (/tˤ, dˤ, sˤ, ðˤ/) and the low back vowel /ɑ/ as primary triggers of ES. Moreover, the OT analyses reveal that alignment constraints (L-ALIGN, R-ALIGN V-[dor]) interact with faithfulness constraints (MAXLINK, NOGAP, DEPLINK) to shape the extent and direction of spread. The study provides a unified formal account of intra- and inter-word ES and highlights cross-dialectal variability in Arabic, offering new insights into the phonological representation of emphatic segments. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the structural behavior of emphatics in Arabic and support the refinement of theoretical models dealing with feature spreading and secondary articulation. The implications extend to comparative dialectology, phonological theory, and the development of more precise feature-based representations across Semitic languages.
With the acceleration of globalization, the use of English as an international language has become increasingly widespread, making the assessment of English reading and writing skills a key issue in the field of language education. However, traditional methods of English reading and writing content assessment rely on manually designed features, which struggle to effectively handle complex and diverse language structures. To address this issue, this study proposes an English reading and writing content assessment algorithm based on Prompt Learning, utilizing an end-to-end architecture enhanced with multi-scale attention mechanisms. The algorithm preprocesses the input English texts through the prompt learning framework and uses multi-scale attention mechanisms to improve the model’s ability to capture features at different linguistic levels. Within an end-to-end architecture, the entire assessment process is automated, from text input to output of assessment results, eliminating the need for manually designed feature extraction steps. Experimental results show that the algorithm performs excellently on multiple English reading and writing assessment datasets, significantly enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of assessments and offering an effective solution for English reading and writing evaluations.
Sarah Désirée Lange, Sanna Pohlmann-Rother, Anna Plohmer
et al.
The BLUME study founded by the German Research Foundation study (“Primary Teachers’ Beliefs Regarding Multilingualism”) describes the complexity and contradictions of primary school teachers’ beliefs. The aim is to empirically envision the whole range of beliefs held by primary school teachers. As part of the BLUME vignette study, qualitative, vignette-based interviews in the style of brief teaching case studies were conducted with 43 primary school teachers. In order to unveil the teachers’ beliefs, the study identified positioning statements that are precise statements independent of the situation and indicate the teachers’ beliefs. Using a basic coding for the positioning statements, in the first step of the analysis, text passages containing beliefs were identified, and a category system was developed inductively and deductively, presented in this article. The results show a high degree of variation in the beliefs of primary school teachers, ranging from strongly affirmative to strongly resistant beliefs. In addition, the teachers show ambivalence in dealing with multilingualism in class as well as in their reflections on their own positioning. The qualitative-empirical approach presented here makes it possible to visualise the theoretically assumed complexity and hierarchisation within the teachers’ belief systems.
English comparative modals are combinations of the adverbs rather, sooner and better with an auxiliary. There is recent consensus that the comparative modals rather and sooner have over time developed a different syntax and semantics than better. However, potential differences in the syntax of rather and sooner with respect to patterns of complementation haven’t been explored. This article reports the results of a corpus study of these two modals and finds that rather patterns like object-raising verbs, allowing a range of complements that are unavailable for sooner. Our analysis of these patterns draws on recent work in the Construction Grammar framework, with forays into its formal implementation, Sign-Based Construction Grammar, and we propose that rather differs from sooner in that it constitutes a micro-construction whose features are licensed by both the Modal Construction and the Object-Raising Construction, the latter a subtype of the Transitive Construction.
The aim of reviewing inclusive education for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder is to ensure that all students have access to high-quality education, support their holistic development, promote inclusivity and equity, and foster collaboration among stakeholders to create a more supportive and inclusive learning environment for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism Spectrum Disorder as a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent challenges in social communication and interaction, as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. The challenges faced by Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder, including difficulties in social interaction, communication, sensory sensitivities, academic support and adaptation, behavioral and emotional regulation, peer acceptance, teachers’ knowledge and training, collaboration and executive functioning. It emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing these challenges to create an inclusive learning environment. However, various strategies to overcome the challenges faced by Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. These strategies include providing individualized support, such as visual support, structured routines, social skills training, and assistive technology. It emphasizes the significance of collaboration among teachers, support staff, specialists, and families to implement these strategies effectively. Furthermore, the benefits of Inclusive Education for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder state that inclusive education promotes social inclusion, academic achievement, and the development of essential life skills. It emphasizes that inclusive classrooms provide opportunities for peer interactions, positive role modeling, and the development of self-advocacy skills.
<h4>Background</h4>Short-acting β2-agonists (SABA), the most potent and rapid-acting relievers are commonly used to provide quick relief of asthma symptoms. However, there is an increasing concern regarding the misuse of SABA medicines.<h4>Objective</h4>This qualitative systematic review aims to determine, evaluate, and summarize the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors towards the use of SABA from the patients' perspectives.<h4>Methods</h4>The databases searched included PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Cochrane database. Original research articles reporting the perceptions, attitudes, or behaviors of asthma patients towards the use of SABA, which was available as full text, published in the English language between the year 2000 and February 2023 were included in the review. Commentaries, letters to editor, review articles, and conference proceedings were excluded.<h4>Results</h4>A total of five articles were included. Six overarching themes were obtained: (1) perceptions on health status; (2) perceptions and attitudes towards the impact of asthma; (3) perceptions towards asthma control; (4) perceptions towards asthma knowledge; (5) risk perceptions; (6) perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors towards the use of SABA.<h4>Conclusion</h4>Despite the fact that SABA could rapidly alleviate asthma symptoms, SABA over-users were less likely to describe their health status and asthma control as 'excellent'. Most SABA over-users did not know that frequent SABA usage would worsen their asthma control, and they exhibited psychological linkage towards the use of SABA. Collaborative efforts between policymakers, healthcare professionals and patients are warranted to reconstruct SABA prescribing practice and usage.
Kuhn (1933) proposed that the evolution of Germanic syntax began with a need to restore acceptable sentence rhythm after a shift to fixed initial stress. Kuhn found support for his hypothesis in ‘laws’ for word placement that applied in alliterative poetry but not in prose. Kuhn assumed that his laws were syntactic rules of Proto-Germanic maintained by conservative poets. Here I argue that Kuhn's Laws were rules of poetic meter that obscured basic word order. Adopting the universalist approach in Russom (2017), I integrate Kuhn's Laws with the metrical constraints observed by Sievers (1893) and explore the interaction between meter and syntax. When there are no adverse metrical consequences, subject-object-verb order is employed with remarkable consistency inBeowulf, our most valuable source of poetic evidence. My analysis receives independent support from Smith (1971), a study of the earliest Germanic texts that focuses primarily on prose.
For novice students, developing disciplinary literacy in literature courses in English as a Foreign Language education (EFL) at university entails mastering a number of skills. The purpose of this small-scale action research study is to investigate the extent to which two different oral exam formats can serve to make explicit commonly held warrants in the discourse community of literary studies. The material consists of observation notes from Socratic seminars and Thought-Question-Epiphany (TQE) seminars, both of which are analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The results show that most students adopt disciplinary conventions, such as building on each other’s ideas, using critical lenses, showing contextual awareness, and supporting claims with textual evidence. While the Socratic seminar format generates lively discussions, the sole focus on questions prevents students from preparing textual evidence for specific literary elements in the analysis. In the TQE seminar, some students react negatively to the forced inclusion of an epiphany, but the format also gives an opportunity to identify significant quotes in advance and to expand on interpretative ideas prompted by the three components.
One of the urgent tasks of any pedagogical university nowadays is to increase the level of language training of foreign language teachers. The purpose of the article is to define the concept and essential characteristics of linguistic readiness of students with major in languages to pass successfully various standardized tests aiming at measurement of the English language ability of non-native. The methodology provides an overview of scientiic research in the ield of foreign language education at university, in particular, on the problem of improving control and evaluation activities. The results of the study deine the fundamental concept, identify the components, essential characteristics and didactic conditions for the effective formation of linguistic readiness to pass standardized tests. In conclusion, the scientific novelty and theoretical signiicance of the article are formulated.
Listening is a receptive skill that plays a crucial role in learning English because it is a language modality used in direct conversation. This study determined the strategies used by the eighth-graders in English listening lessons and their reasoning. This study implemented a mixed-method approach and was carried out in a private junior high school in Probolinggo, involving 62 students. To collect the data, the researchers employed surveys and interviews to determine the types of student learning strategies in listening lessons and the reasons for using these strategies. The survey data were analyzed quantitatively using weighted means, while the qualitative data from the interview were thematically analyzed. The findings indicated that the most used strategies were metacognitive (x=3.77), cognitive (x=3.69), and social-affective (x=3.40). Next, students’ reasons for using the metacognitive strategies would understand the topic, think about the learning process, and evaluate evaluations that help them do the listening test. Students could understand the meaning of the topics they hear, make students focus on learning objectives, and know the progress of learning applied. By knowing students' learning strategies and their reasons, teachers can be more creative in choosing the proper learning methods because they know students' character and what they need.
Theory and practice of education, Language and Literature
This study addresses a controversial aspect of the change traditionally known as Middle English Open Syllable Lengthening (MEOSL): the variable results of lengthening in disyllabic (C)V.CVC stems, theheaven–havenconundrum. It presents a full philological survey of the recoverable monomorphemic input items and their reflexes in Present-day English (PDE). A re-examination of the empirical data reveals a previously unnoticed correlation between lengthening and the sonority of the medial consonant in forms such aspaper,rocket,gannetandbaron, as well as interplay between that consonant and the σ2coda. The alignment of disyllabic stems with a medial alveolar stop and a sonorant weak syllable coda (Latin,better,otter) with (C)V.RVR stems (baron,felon,moral) opens up a new perspective on the reconstruction of tapping in English. The results of lengthening in disyllabic forms, including those previously thought of as ‘exceptions’ to the change, are modeled in Classical OT and Maxent OT, prompting an account which reframes MEOSL as a stem-level compensatory process (MECL) for all inputs. We show that OT grammars with conventional constraints can correctly predict variation in the (C)V.TəR stems and categorical lengthening or non-lengthening in other disyllabic stems. Broadening the phonological factors beyond the open-syllable condition for potential stressed σ1inputs in (C)V.CV(C) stems allows us to apply the same constraints to stems whose input structure does not involve an open syllable and to propose a uniform account of stressed vowel quantity in all late Middle English mono- and di-syllabic stems.
Exploiting the free technology empowering services with which Google supplies the educational field, the present paper contributes a Google Education mediated syllabus framework to the field of teaching English as a second/ foreign language. Through a systems approach methodology, the framework addressed the concepts of ‘learner autonomy’ and ‘digital learners’ within the scope of its consecutive blocks: conceptualisation, planning and development. The relevance of this effort is to be seen in terms of bridging the ever-growing gap between the classroom and the digital world of web 2.0 learners; as well as enabling the teachers to contextualise the proposed tool with regard to their syllabi development, renewal and adaptation.
Farahnaz Abedini, Mohammad Sadegh Bagheri, Firooz Sadighi
To capture the unique nature of collective teacher efficacy as reflected in ELT settings, the current study attempted to develop and validate a context-specific collective efficacy scale and use it in exploring collective efficacy beliefs in different ELT contexts. To achieve this goal, guided by the related literature, the most prominent constituent elements of collective teacher efficacy were identified through a series of semistructured interviews with English language teachers and instructors in educational contexts of school, institute, and university. Based on the seven-component initial model obtained from qualitative content analysis, a 32-item questionnaire was developed and tried on 405 EFL teachers and instructors. The data were then subjected to exploratory factor analysis. The proposed model consisted of 21 items encompassing four factors. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the scale showed indices of construct validity and suitably fit the proposed collective efficacy model. Applying a one-way ANOVA also revealed that the three educational contexts differed significantly with respect to English teacher collective efficacy beliefs. English language institute teachers displayed the highest collective efficacy level while university instructors showed the lowest level. A significant difference existed between institute and high school teachers and university instructors.
There is lack of studies on the use of metadiscourse markers; especially amongst international students studying in Malaysia and Malaysia are receiving scores of international students particularly from the Middle East annually. This study involves a textual analysis of students’ academic writing where the metadiscourse markers in 50 Arab IIUM students’ academic texts were identified and analyzed. The findings of this study indicated that Arab writers had a greater inclination for the deployment of the interactive markers (Total counts = 919) than interactional ones (Total counts = 592) as there was a higher percentage of interactive metadiscourse (60.8%) usage than the interactional ones (39.2%). It might be useful for English language teachers to integrate cultural considerations within their syllabus with regard to metadiscourse markers in order to prepare relevant materials based on their students’ needs as well as to develop the students’ awareness of the importance of these linguistic features.
Background: The aim of this updated review is to consider the evidence base for the effectiveness of home-based exercise programmes as a treatment option for improving walking distance in patients with intermittent claudication. Methods: The Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PEDro and Cochrane CENTRAL databases will be searched for terms including ‘intermittent claudication’, ‘peripheral arterial disease’, ‘home-based exercise’ and ‘home-based walking’. No date restrictions will be used but only articles in the English language will be included. Both randomised and non-randomised trials of home-based exercise programmes versus a comparator arm will be included, and a meta-analysis using only the randomised controlled trials will be attempted if the assumptions of heterogeneity are met. Data extraction will include study details, sample description, intervention description, length of follow-up and outcomes measures. The primary outcome measure is objectively measured maximal walking distance or time, with secondary outcome measures including pain-free walking distance or time, changes in physical activity and quality of life. We will also provide a narrative description of the effective components of a home-based exercise intervention which can aid future recommendations. Conclusion: Overall, this proposed review and meta-analysis aims provide a comprehensive and complete overview of the evidence base for home-based exercise programmes, which can aid clinicians in the management of their patients.