Digital Technologies Research and Applications(DTRA)

Digital Technologies Research and Applications

Latest Issue
Volume 5, Issue 1
January 2026
Access: Full Open access

Digital Technologies Research and Applications (DTRA) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that provides researchers, scholars, scientists, and engineers worldwide with a platform for exchanging and disseminating theoretical and practice-oriented papers on digital technologies and their applications.

  • ISSN: 2754-5687
  • Frequency: Quarterly
  • Language: English
  • E-mail: dtra@ukscip.com

Journal Abbreviation: Digit. Tech. Res. Appl.

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Latest Published Articles

Article Article ID: 1960

Thematic Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Research in Chinese-Speaking Academia (2021–2025): A Bibliometric and Text-Mining Analysis Using VOSviewer and KH Coder

This study examines the visible thematic patterns of artificial intelligence (AI)–related research in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao from 2021 to 2025. The analysis is based on Scopus-indexed journal articles and uses keyword frequency counts, VOSviewer density visualizations, and KH Coder co-occurrence networks. These methods are applied to describe how AI-related keywords appear across the four regions and how their distributions change during the five-year period. Across all datasets, terms such as machine learning, deep learning, and neural network appear frequently and occupy central positions in the visual outputs. The VOSviewer heatmaps show that regions with larger publication volumes display wider areas of keyword density, while regions with smaller datasets present more compact clusters. Beginning in 2024 and 2025, generative AI–related terms, including large language model and ChatGPT, become visible across all regions. The KH Coder networks illustrate that the four regions contain multiple clusters of co-occurring keywords, with differences in cluster size and distribution reflecting the underlying dataset scale and the topics present in each regional corpus. Overall, the results offer a descriptive account of how AI-related terms appear in the collected datasets and how their visible distributions vary among the four regions during the study period. The findings are intended to summarize observable patterns without inferring causal explanations or evaluating the significance of regional differences.

Article Article ID: 1913

A Comparative Study of Human and Machine Translation of Animal Metaphors in Mo Yan’s Frog

Metaphor translation plays a key role in cross-cultural communication. Among metaphor types, animal metaphors stand out for their rich cultural connotations and cognitive complexity, making them a valuable testing ground for translation strategies. Despite growing interest, existing research has yet to fully clarify the cultural adaptation mechanisms involved in rendering animal metaphor translation across languages. In particular, how different translation agents dynamically process these culturally loaded expressions remains underexplored, which complicates efforts to optimize human-machine collaboration. This study adopts conceptual metaphor theory and an integrated methodology combining qualitative and quantitative analysis with theoretical interpretation. Drawing on three English translations of Mo Yan’s Frog—by Howard Goldblatt, ChatGPT-4.0, and ChatGLM—this study conducts a systematic comparison of how human and machine translators handle animal metaphors. The analysis shows that effective rendering requires more than literal transfer: it depends on activating culture-specific frames and maintaining evaluative stance, not merely preserving surface imagery. While recent advances in artificial intelligence yield relatively high rates of literal retention, machine translations tend to remain surface-bound when metaphors are culturally or politically charged. By contrast, the cultural awareness and interpretive craft evident in the human translation more consistently preserve metaphorical nuance and ideological force. This study offers new evidence for research on metaphor translation and provides practical guidance for improving human-machine collaborations in literary contexts—e.g., using machine outputs to secure surface mapping while human translators recalibrate cultural frames and stance.

Article Article ID: 1709

Dynamic GNNs for Predicting Train Cancellations on the Dutch Railway Network: A Multi-Season Study of Environmental and Operational Factors

Cancellations on the Dutch Railway network are a common and unpredictable occurrence; however, little research has focused on predicting these cancellations. Previous studies on the Dutch railway system have primarily concentrated on delay prediction. For this regression task, models such as XGBoost, Random Forest, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and Gradient Boosting Decision Tree have been shown to perform well. Graph neural network-based models have been used for regression tasks on other transportation networks. We propose a Dynamic Graph Neural Network (DGNN) combined with an LSTM network for binary classification of cancelled trajectories. We compare the model with baseline models on a seasonal split to compare the feature importance across different seasons. Model performance is gauged using paired t-tests on bootstrapped F1 scores. Additionally, Precision, Recall, Balanced Accuracy, and AUC are considered metrics for further comparison. The newly proposed features achieve mostly positive feature importance scores across the models. Amongst the evaluated models, the proposed DGNN and XGBoost outperform the baseline models. Overall, the models underperform with F1 scores no higher than 0.4. This paper provides insight into the influence of various weather and operational features on cancellations on the Dutch railway network, with the operational features proving insightful.

Article Article ID: 1907

The Influence of Cognitive Learning Styles on the Effectiveness of Deep Learning Models in ESP Classrooms

Deep learning technologies have revolutionised pedagogical techniques in recent years by enabling individualised, adaptive learning environments in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) training. The efficacy of these AI-driven systems depends on how well they align with students' cognitive learning styles, including visual, introspective, and kinesthetic styles, which influence how they process and interact with information. This study examines the impact of cognitive learning styles on student performance and perceptions in deep learning-based ESP classes. Through stratified random sampling, 240 undergraduate students from Universitas Muhammadiyah Gresik participated in the study, which used a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design. Validated tools to evaluate cognitive styles and ESP performance were used to collect quantitative data, while semi-structured interviews with a purposive subsample provided qualitative data. Visual learners performed significantly better than their reflective and kinesthetic peers, as indicated by structural equation modeling (β = 0.42, p < 0.001). The results of a qualitative study showed that visual learners preferred graphical input, reflective learners needed depth and timing, and kinesthetic learners expressed disengagement from static interfaces. Emotional responses, including anxiety and a decline in self-efficacy, emerged as a recurrent pattern among non-visual learners. The study concludes that cognitive congruence has a critical role in determining affective participation and academic success in AI-mediated ESP situations. By emphasising the need for inclusive instructional design that considers a range of cognitive profiles, these discoveries contribute to the discussion of customised learning in digitally enhanced language training.

Article Article ID: 1900

Operationalizing SAMR Redefinition in EFL Reading: AI as a Mediating Tool for Literacy Innovation

This study examines how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can leverage the concept of Redefinition—the highest level of the Substitution-Augmentation-Modification-Redefinition (SAMR) model—to transform the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading from comprehension-focused activities to inquiry-driven and effective reading and writing activities. Based on socio-cultural theory, Project-Based Learning (PBL), and theoretical frameworks of digital competence, this study conceptualizes AI as a cognitive mediating framework that supports knowledge transformation rather than task automation. Using a multi-method action research design, interventions were conducted with 130 Vietnamese university students enrolled in intermediate-level English reading courses over eight weeks. Traditional reading activities were redesigned into AI-assisted projects, including multimedia infographics, podcasts, and investigative reading tasks. Quantitative data were collected through a validated 40-item questionnaire, and qualitative insights were gathered from semistructured interviews with six purposefully selected participants. The study results indicate that AI-assisted redefined reading tasks promoted higher-order thinking, synthesis, and practical application, demonstrating the successful implementation of the SAMR Redefinition methodology. Students perceive AI as a supportive learning partner, enhancing comprehension, reducing frustration, and increasing motivation and confidence. A fairly strong positive correlation (r = 0.62) was found between purposeful AI use and student engagement and reading performance. Qualitative results further suggest that AI supports continuous reading, collaborative preparation, and multimodal knowledge building, while encouraging responsible and critical use of AI. The study proposes an AI-powered SAMR framework and a pedagogical sequence of read-interpret-transform-create, providing a scalable model for teaching English as a transformative foreign language reading.

Article Article ID: 1774

Cultural Gene Mining and Green Communication Pathways of Ethnic Music from a Digital Humanities Perspective

This study focuses on the extraction of ethnic music cultural genes and green communication pathways from a digital humanities perspective. Addressing the digital transformation challenges faced by traditional ethnic music preservation, the study constructed a multimodal cultural gene extraction framework integrating deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision, extracting 687-dimensional cultural features from 12 types of ethnic music, with the model achieving an F1 score of 0.863. A green communication system based on a cloud-edge-device collaborative architecture with 291 nodes was designed, achieving an energy efficiency ratio of 36,300 people per kilowatt, representing a 62.8% improvement over traditional architectures and an annual carbon emission reduction of 1076.8 t. A real-time energy consumption monitoring and carbon emission accounting system covering six major scenarios was established, with mobile-end optimization rates reaching 52.3%, translating green communication into quantifiable indicators. Systematic solutions were proposed for technical challenges such as sample imbalance and high-dimensional sparsity, increasing data availability to 91.2% and system availability to 99.7%. The successful implementation of 12 projects validated the feasibility of translating theory into practice. The research outcomes provide a computable methodological paradigm for the digital preservation of ethnic music, with potential for extension to digital museums, online education, and other fields, contributing a Chinese solution to the green transformation of the global digital cultural industry.

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