Monastery stay tourism is an emerging niche within spiritual and transformative tourism, offering immersive experiences that facilitate personal and emotional growth. Despite its rising popularity, limited research has explored how such experiences shape tourists' emotional bonds, identity formation, and revisit intention. Drawing on mindfulness theory, this study examines the role of mindfulness cultivated during Buddhist monastery retreats in influencing emotional solidarity, experience self-connection, place identity, and behavioural intention. Data were collected from 430 visitors and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and multi-group analysis (MGA). The PLS-SEM results underscore the critical role of mindfulness in shaping tourists’ social interactions, emotional attachment to the destination, and self-connection, all of which significantly impact their intention to engage in spiritual retreats. Emotional solidarity and self-connection are found to significantly influence place identity and future behavioural intention. The MGA findings indicate that generational and experiential segmentation reveals that Generation Z is more responsive to mindfulness and experience self-connection, while older cohorts are more influenced by emotional solidarity. Repeat visitors report stronger mindfulness effects across all outcomes, whereas first-time visitors rely more on emotional bonding. These insights underscore the value of tailoring mindful retreat experiences to foster deeper engagement and sustained support for religious tourism destinations.
Existing literature on generative AI (genAI) in business education has examined students’ attitudes, motivation, and the ethics of genAI use, alongside ongoing debate about whether genAI over-reliance may diminish self-regulated learning (SRL). However, how students self-regulate their learning while working with genAI during authentic tasks remains under-explored. This study addresses this gap by examining (RQ1) how students' self-regulatory strategies manifest during genAI-assisted learning and (RQ2) how these strategies change through genAI interaction. A thematic analysis was conducted of 34 metacognitive reflections generated across two scaffolded, four-stage experiential learning activities in a Lean Startup unit. Findings inform a three-stage AI-mediated recursive loop model, comprising monitoring, strategic adoption, and limitation identification, that extends cyclical models of self-regulated learning by showing how regulation may be initiated within the task by genAI-generated suggestions. Within this structured, reflective learning context, students indicated evaluative judgement and metacognitive regulation, providing preliminary evidence that scaffolded genAI activities can elicit active rather than passive engagement. GenAI-supported cognitive deepening was task-contingent, emerging most strongly during applied refinement tasks. The model offers management educators a pedagogical process model for designing scaffolded genAI-assisted activities that elicit monitoring, selective adoption, and critical reflection.
This study presents a comprehensive framework for selecting optimal ground motion intensity measures (IMs) and developing seismic fragility curves for horseshoe tunnels. To do so, a total of 20 candidate IMs were evaluated through nonlinear time history analyses. The two-dimensional finite difference models considering soil-tunnel interaction were developed and validated using the FLAC2D program. The model incorporated varying tunnel embedment depths (10 m, 20 m, and 30 m) and different site conditions (site classes B, C, and D), with 100 input ground motions representing a wide range of seismic characteristics. The performance of each IM was examined based on four statistical criteria: goodness of fit, efficiency, practicality, and proficiency. The findings show that for stiff soil conditions (site B), the most effective intensity measures are peak ground acceleration (PGA), acceleration spectrum intensity, effective design acceleration, and the A95 parameter. In contrast, for tunnels constructed in medium to soft soils (sites C and D), velocity spectrum intensity, Housner intensity, peak ground velocity (PGV), and Arias intensity provide a better correlation with the seismic response. In comparison, predominant period, mean period, and the PGV/PGA ratio consistently exhibited weak correlation, high variability, and limited practical value, rendering them unsuitable for fragility analysis. Fragility curves were then developed based on the proposed optimal IMs. The results reveal that increasing embedment depth significantly reduces seismic vulnerability, and tunnels in soft soils exhibit higher damage probabilities under the same seismic demand. Moreover, comparisons between different tunnel shapes show that rectangular tunnels are the most vulnerable, followed by horseshoe tunnels, while circular tunnels demonstrate the highest seismic resistance. The proposed framework provides a useful reference for performance-based seismic design and risk assessment of underground structures.
While several studies have shown that soil nitrogen (N) levels decline by introducing upland crops into paddy rice monoculture, the net effect onto soil N supply remains unclear. The study assessed whether crop rotation could improve soil N availability by enhancing mineralization and releasing fixed NH₄⁺–N under less-reducing conditions. As a secondary aim the effect of extra organic inputs on soil N supply and the N balance was investigated. A field experiment covering 7 growing seasons (2017–2020) was carried out in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta comparing three crop rotations (rice–rice–rice, sesame–rice–rice, soybean–rice–rice) with or without compost. Soil samples (0–15 cm and 15–30 cm) were collected from the third crop onward, and exchangeable NH₄⁺–N, NO₃⁻–N, fixed NH₄⁺–N, and plant N uptake were measured. Crop rotation did not affect exchangeable NH₄⁺–N but increased soil NO₃⁻–N at both depths, raising the risk of N losses. Crop rotation marginally increased fixed NH₄⁺–N, indicating N conservation. Organic amendments enhanced exchangeable NH₄⁺–N but did not affect topsoil fixed NH₄⁺–N. Neither rotation nor amendments alone increased plant N uptake. Overall, the N balance was negative with an imbalance in soil organic N and a gradual net loss of fixed NH₄⁺–N. Introducing upland crops into rice monoculture requires balancing trade-offs between improved N availability for plant uptake and enhanced susceptibility to N losses, emphasizing the need to develop balanced N management strategies in rice-based systems.
The seafood processing industry generates high amounts of wastewater treatment sludge (WTS), posing environmental and economic challenges due to high disposal costs. Composting WTS with appropriate bulking agents, such as water hyacinth, offers a sustainable solution for waste management. However, challenges such as high moisture, nitrogen loss, and low composting efficiency limit the effectiveness of traditional composting methods. This study investigates the impact of biochar supplementation on the composting process of WTS and water hyacinth. A composting experiment was conducted using nine boxes (1m3 each) with varying biochar supplementation levels (0
