This research aims to explore the impact of digital virtual anchors, such as virtual presenters and singers, on the entertainment industry, with a focus on user perceptions and market changes. The study analysed data on the behaviour of Chinese youth, including their perceptions of virtual presenters on platforms such as Bilibili, and their influence on preferences and consumer decisions. The methodology included surveys and statistical analysis to assess the degree of engagement, users’ willingness to interact with virtual anchors and their influence on the overall growth of interest in virtual platforms. The results showed that 78% of respondents had a positive perception of virtual anchors, and 62% said that such technologies increased their interest in platforms. The analysis also revealed a significant impact of virtual anchors on market structure, including revenue growth in streaming, virtual concerts and e-commerce. Study participants also noted increased interest in augmented reality (AR) technologies and their integration with virtual anchors. The study’s findings emphasize the importance of the industry adapting to new technologies to attract audiences and remain competitive. The long-term potential of virtual anchors includes opportunities to expand business models, introduce personalized solutions and develop new products, creating significant prospects for their continued use in the entertainment industry.

Accurately diagnosing emotional and psychological disorders is essential for prompt mental health interventions, especially in intelligent healthcare systems. This paper proposes a deep learning model that uses convolutional neural networks (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) networks to classify emotional states based on physiological inputs like EEG and ECG. Bayesian optimisation improves the model's learning efficacy and generalisation ability by adjusting hyperparameters. In comparison to conventional machine learning models such as Support Vector Machines (SVM), random forest, and standalone deep learning models (CNN and LSTM), the proposed CNN-LSTM architecture increases classification accuracy by 25%, to 92.1%. Its exceptional performance is demonstrated by its AUC-ROC score of 0.96, accuracy of 0.93, recall of 0.91, and F1-score of 0.92. These results show that the model can distinguish between several emotional states, including neutral, tense, and concerned. A real-time application is used to investigate the potential of wearable EEG-based brain-computer interface (BCI) devices for continuous emotional monitoring. The findings indicate that the proposed framework might be a helpful tool for the early detection and tailored management of mental health conditions in intricate healthcare environments.

Sovereign large language models (LLMs), emerging as strategic assets in global information ecosystems, represent advanced AI system developed under distinct national governance regimes. This study examines how model origin and governance context influence AI-generated narratives on international territorial disputes. The study compares outputs from three prominent sovereign LLMs - OpenAI’s GPT-4o (United States), DeepSeek-R1 (China), and Mistral (European Union), across 12 high-profile territorial conflicts. Statistically significant differences in each model's sentiment distribution and geopolitical framing are identified using a mixed-methods approach that combines sentiment analysis with statistical evaluation (chi-square tests and analysis of variance, ANOVA) on responses to 300 standardized prompts.

The findings indicate model provenance substantially shapes the tone and stance of outputs, with each LLM reflecting distinct biases aligned with its national context. These disparities carry important policy and societal implications: reliance on a single sovereign model could inadvertently bias public discourse and decision-making toward that model's native perspective. The study highlights ethical considerations such as transparency and fairness and calls for robust governance frameworks. It underscores the need for careful oversight and international cooperation to ensure that sovereign LLMs are deployed in a manner that supports informed and balanced geopolitical dialogue.

The rise of distributed applications and cloud computing has created a demand for scalable, high-performance key-value storage systems. This paper presents a performance evaluation of three prominent NoSQL key-value stores: Redis, Aerospike, and Dragonfly, using the Yahoo! Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) framework. We conducted extensive experiments across three distinct workload patterns (read-heavy, write-heavy), and balanced while systematically varying client concurrency from 1 to 32 clients. Our evaluation methodology captures both latency, throughput, and memory characteristics under realistic operational conditions, providing insights into the performance trade-offs and scalability behaviour of each system.

The digital transformation has fundamentally reshaped brand management, moving from traditional mass communication to data-driven, interactive, and highly personalized strategies. With emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, and digital ecosystems, brands are now engaging consumers in innovative ways to enhance loyalty and gain a competitive advantage. This study examines how leading brands, such as Nike, Apple, and Coca-Cola, employ digital brand management strategies to enhance brand equity, boost consumer engagement, and maintain market leadership. A multiple-case study approach was employed to analyse this. Data was collected through archival research, social media analytics, and consumer sentiment analysis to assess the impact and effectiveness of these strategies. The study examines key digital branding elements, including direct-to-consumer (DTC) models, experiential marketing, and interactive campaigns. The findings reveal that Nike's DTC strategy fosters direct consumer relationships and strengthens brand equity. Apple's experiential marketing and storytelling foster emotional brand loyalty, while Coca-Cola's personalized and interactive digital campaigns drive consumer engagement and social media virality. These strategies demonstrate the growing importance of AI-driven personalization, omnichannel consistency, and consumer-centric engagement.

The study concludes that brands prioritizing AI-powered personalization and immersive digital experiences achieve stronger consumer engagement and long-term brand growth. Practical implications suggest businesses integrate AI-driven analytics, invest in emerging technologies, and adopt consumer-focused digital strategies. Future research should investigate the long-term effects of AI-driven brand interactions and examine the role of Web3 and the Metaverse in shaping the future of digital brand management.

Takaful is an alternative Shariah compliant insurance product which is being offered by more than fifty takaful companies in Pakistan. Currently takaful market is facing low penetration due to many challenges including regulatory or compliance, payment efficiency, fraud prevention, transparency. Blockchain technology, a decentralized, transparent and trust-based system, which could address these issues efficiently and effectively by offering smart contracts.

This paper examines Blockchain's feasibility and its impact on Pakistan’s insurance market in general and takaful sector in particular, using a systematic literature review (SLR) and case studies from Malaysia, the UAE, and Indonesia. In Malaysia and the UAE, the success of using Blockchain in Islamic finance highlights potential efficiency and security benefits. However, in Pakistan's regulatory ambiguity, lack of Shariah-compliant frameworks, limited human expertise, and low industry readiness are few factors which needs to look at, by the Government of Pakistan, and this could lead to sustainable growth in Pakistan’s digital financial sector including takaful industry. The Policymakers, Ministry of science and technology and State of bank of Pakistan could benefits from this study by creating a regulatory sandbox and offer current takaful operators full IT and regulatory support to develop Shariah-compliant smart contracts. The results reveal that, Takaful operators should develop and test pilot digital projects focusing on cost reduction, fraud prevention, automation of standards claims where possible, streamline the insurance industry and takaful operations and this leads to not only increase takaful penetration but also help Pakistani takaful market to align with global digital trends.