Search Results (245)

Under Article 2135 of the Italian Civil Code, agricultural biogas firms represent a strategic expansion of traditional farming boundaries. By driving corporate diversification, environmental sustainability, and circular economy objectives, these firms are attracting substantial investment within the European Union and particularly in Italy. However, the bioenergy sector is structurally characterized by high capital intensity and low asset turnover efficiency, necessitating extensive external financing. Despite these unique dynamics, empirical evidence regarding their capital structure remains scarce. To address this literature gap, this study analyzes a 10-year balanced panel dataset comprising 350 firm-year observations, representing the most extensive research conducted to date on specialized Italian agricultural biogas firms. To answer the research questions (RQs), financial ratios (FRs) were calculated from financial statement (FINSTAT) data by applying the DuPont decomposition framework. The main findings are that (1) firms exhibit high profitability, but with some cases of loss and equity erosion; (2) firms exhibit low capital turnover and some cases of short-term financial unsustainability; (3) capital structure is often characterized by excessive debt. Our findings reveal a capital-intensive sector that, while profitable, remains vulnerable to financial instability. We provide actionable insights for practitioners and policymakers to foster a culture of financial sustainability. Our findings help mitigate information asymmetries, fostering more transparent market operations and ensuring that public subsidies are channeled into resilient capital structures. Full article

This study examines how investment priorities for sustainable rural development are shaped when financial, environmental, social, and institutional criteria are evaluated simultaneously. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the study assesses six investment alternatives: eco-tourism, agro-tourism, renewable energy, digital tourism, sustainable agriculture, and cultural tourism. The results reveal the dominance of financial performance and risk considerations, which together account for more than two-thirds of total decision weight. Renewable energy emerges as the highest-ranked investment alternative, whereas agro-tourism and sustainable agriculture remain under-prioritized despite their environmental and social benefits. A comparative scenario analysis demonstrates that policy-oriented weighting structures substantially alter investment rankings, increasing the attractiveness of locally embedded and sustainability-oriented activities. The findings suggest a structural divergence between market-driven capital allocation and broader rural development objectives. By integrating sustainable finance and rural development within a multi-criteria decision-making framework, the study provides practical insights for investors and policymakers seeking to align investment decisions with long-term sustainability goals. Full article

This study evaluates the implications of Egypt’s accession to the BRICS+ bloc by integrating a Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood gravity model with a comprehensive PESTEL analysis. Using panel data on Egypt’s bilateral trade with BRICS+ from 2005 to 2024, our econometric results reveal that partner-country economic size and cultural proximity are the primary drivers of trade, whereas geographical distance exerts a negligible effect. Furthermore, trade policy variables—specifically tariffs, exchange rate fluctuations, and existing preferential trade agreements—significantly shape trade flows, while logistics performance and general trade openness demonstrate limited short-term impact. Beyond trade mechanics, the PESTEL analysis indicates that while BRICS+ membership enhances Egypt’s strategic autonomy and broadens its political influence, tangible economic gains remain heavily constrained by persistent structural trade imbalances and a lack of export diversification. Although the bloc offers valuable opportunities for human capital development and green infrastructure financing, technological cooperation is hindered by capacity disparities, and the soft-law nature of the alliance limits the enforceability of economic agreements. Ultimately, this study concludes that to maximize the benefits of BRICS+, Egypt must implement sustained structural reforms aimed at upgrading industrial competitiveness, diversifying its export base, strengthening domestic technological capabilities, and embedding itself more deeply within global value chains. Full article

Adaptive reuse of post-industrial heritage is often studied through technical performance, formal intervention strategies, or decision-support models. While these approaches clarify important aspects of reuse, they give limited attention to how projects evolve through the combined effects of architectural decisions, governance arrangements, financing mechanisms, policy instruments, social programs, and inherited fabric. This paper examines adaptive reuse as a time-structured project trajectory. It applies a hybrid methodology combining within-case reconstruction and comparative cross-case analysis to seven European projects in Brussels, Essen, Rotterdam, San Sebastián, Florence, Vienna, and Barcelona. The cases are analyzed across six dimensions: Asset & Context, Governance & Finance, Circularity, Social & Cultural, Policy & Design, and Outcomes & Transfer. The comparison shows that adaptive capacity depends on the alignment of governance, project time, and intervention strategy. Governance determines who can revise decisions and under what conditions; adaptation time is produced through funding horizons, approval procedures, institutional continuity, and civic or public stewardship; and strategies of retention, replacement, reversible insertion, and incremental occupation distribute future risk differently across project phases. From this synthesis, the paper extracts ten conditional lessons that frame adaptive reuse as configuration knowledge: transferable insights whose relevance depends on the interaction among governance capacity, temporal sequencing, inherited fabric, financing, policy support, and social objectives. The paper argues that knowledge transfer in adaptive reuse should be understood as disciplined translation across comparable constraints, not as the replication of models, rankings, or best-practice templates. Full article

This Perspective is dedicated to the memory of Professor Joseph Mark (Joe) Gani (1924–2016) and Professor Christopher Charles (Chris) Heyde (1939–2008), two scholars whose intellectual leadership profoundly shaped applied probability, mathematical statistics, and their interface with finance, insurance, and risk management. Their contributions extend beyond specific technical results to the development of research cultures grounded in probabilistic rigor, empirical relevance, and methodological transparency. We emphasize three enduring themes central to modern quantitative risk analysis. First, the systematic incorporation of heavy-tailed and non-Gaussian features in stochastic modeling, reflecting persistent empirical deviations from classical Gaussian assumptions in financial data. Second, the development of stochastic and time-series methodologies capable of handling dependence structures, including conditional heteroskedasticity and long-range dependence. Third, the principled integration of probabilistic modeling with data-driven and machine learning approaches, ensuring predictive performance is accompanied by interpretability and robustness. We situate these contributions within contemporary challenges in financial risk management, including systemic risk, environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations, and climate finance. In particular, climate-related financial risks arise from both physical impacts (such as extreme weather events and long-term environmental change) and transition dynamics associated with the shift toward a low-carbon economy (including policy, technological, and market adjustments). These sources of risk introduce additional forms of dependence, nonlinearity, and model uncertainty, particularly in high-dimensional, data-rich settings. This Perspective highlights a forward-looking research agenda that preserves the foundational principles of applied probability while adapting them to modern financial systems characterized by real-time information flows and evolving risk structures. This legacy continues to shape how financial risk is modeled, measured, and understood in increasingly complex and interconnected environments. Full article

The burden of disability is rising rapidly in Africa, where a severe shortage of rehabilitation professionals and limited infrastructure create a major treatment gap. Immersive virtual reality and serious games have shown promise for upper limb rehabilitation, but current extended reality (XR) solutions lack personalization, cultural adaptability, real-time feedback, and scalability. This perspective paper proposes a conceptual AI-enhanced XR framework tailored to African low- and middle-income countries. We identify how generative AI, large language models, multiagent systems, and explainable AI can address specific rehabilitation barriers. The framework integrates these four pillars into a three-layer architecture covering content creation, interaction, and decision support. We analyze implementation considerations specific to African contexts—infrastructure, capacity building, cultural adaptation, ethics, and financing—and outline a detailed research agenda with near, medium, and longer term priorities. Realizing this vision requires co-design with African communities, investment in local capacity, adaptation to infrastructure constraints, and development of ethical frameworks. AI-enhanced XR has the potential to democratize access to quality rehabilitation across Africa, but this potential must be validated through rigorous, context-sensitive research. Full article

Mobile payment systems are widely viewed as a practical lever for sustainable financial inclusion in developing economies, with relevance to UN Sustainable Development Goals 1, 8, and 10. Yet in countries such as Egypt—where mobile penetration exceeds 95% but banking penetration remains below 35%—sustained engagement with these services lags policy expectations, suggesting that determinants beyond technology shape behavior. This study examines the determinants of behavioral intention and continued use of mobile payment among Egyptian users, and tests whether cultural factors dominate conventional technology-acceptance predictors in a collectivist, high-power-distance setting. A structured bilingual (Arabic–English) questionnaire measuring nine predictors across technology, psychological, and socio-cultural dimensions was administered to 200 active mobile-payment users in Egypt during January–February 2025. Hierarchical regression and mediation analysis (with Sobel/delta-method 95% confidence intervals as a robustness check) were used to examine direct effects on Behavioral Intention and continued use, and the mediating role of Behavioral Intention. Cultural Influence emerged as the strongest predictor of Behavioral Intention (β = 0.421, p < 0.001), followed by Facilitating Conditions (β = 0.282, p < 0.001); conventional TAM variables were not statistically significant. Cultural Influence retained a significant direct effect on continued use (β = 0.253, p < 0.01), indicating partial mediation. The findings support culture-sensitive approaches to technology adoption research and inform financial-inclusion policy in non-Western contexts. Limitations include the cross-sectional design and the convenience-based snowball sample of existing users. Full article

Farmland management rights (FMR) mortgage lending has been advanced as a central instrument of rural credit reform in China, yet the program has consistently failed to sustain itself in the absence of direct government facilitation. Drawing on five national and provincial pilot counties in Henan Province, this study investigates the structural factors underlying this sustainability failure. We employ a sequential mixed-methods design: grounded theory analysis of in-depth interviews, policy documents, and media reports from five focal sites to inductively construct a constraint framework, followed by structural equation modeling (SEM) validation using 1055 survey responses. Our grounded theory analysis identifies three internal constraint categories—property rights insecurity, a thin secondary land market, and subject-level agricultural risk—and one external environmental constraint, which together produce a state of mutual non-recognition: neither financial institutions nor farming households regard FMR as legitimate collateral. Notably, the effect of collateral acceptance on farmer mortgage willingness is statistically insignificant, revealing that demand-side barriers are more deeply entrenched than supply-side institutional improvements alone can resolve. These findings challenge the premise that legal formalization of land rights is sufficient to generate market-driven credit activity, and call attention to the equally important role of institutional ecosystem development—encompassing land markets, appraisal capacity, supervisory infrastructure, and rural credit culture. The insights carry direct relevance for developing economies exploring land-backed agricultural credit as a rural finance strategy. Full article

Wound infections result from contamination of compromised skin following either intentional or accidental trauma. The failure of infected wounds to heal has a huge impact on global healthcare finances. For surveillance purposes, this investigation looks at wound infections and their susceptibility to antibiotics. Data obtained from the microbiology laboratory for the years 2014 and 2019 included wound characteristics, patient demographics, and causative bacteria pathogen. Also retrieved from an −80° C freezer were 270 Gram-negative bacteria isolates from wounds that formed part of patient care. Vitek Compact 2 was used for bacteria IDs and AST testing. Wound swabs were the majority (74.07%), followed by bedsore samples (12.22%). Others were tissue cultures (6.3%), skin swabs (3.7%), necrotizing fasciitis (1.48%), foot swabs (1.10%), and cervical wounds (1.11%). Isolated pathogens included Pseudomonas aeruginosa (33.6%), Escherichia coli (24.78%), Acinetobacter baumannii (21.85%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (17.65%), Proteus mirabilis (1.7%), and Morganelli morganii (0.41%). Most isolates had become MDR after 5 years, with extensive (100%) resistance to β-lactam and fluoroquinolone. Only tigecycline and amikacin maintained their antimicrobial activity for the period with some bacteria species. Suitable therapeutic options were few, irrespective of the year of isolation, particularly among the ESKAPE isolates. Overall results demonstrate that after a 5-year period, about 75% of the isolates of the bacteria pathogens had become resistant to most of the antibiotics used for their management. Full article

The United States faces a maternal health crisis marked by stark racial disparities. Although doula support has emerged as an evidence-based intervention to improve perinatal outcomes by addressing social determinants of health, its integration into healthcare systems remains limited. This qualitative study, informed by phenomenological principles, examined multi-level experiences, perceived barriers, and perceived facilitators of integrating doula services into perinatal care systems and their intersection with health equity goals. We conducted 17 semi-structured interviews with 20 participants across Nebraska and Tennessee, including doulas, midwives, physicians, Medicaid administrators, and public health professionals, and analyzed data using reflexive thematic analysis guided by the Socio-Ecological Model. Three themes emerged: the integration paradox, an overarching theme capturing tensions between doula independence and healthcare system demands for standardization, including divergent views on practice models, provider dynamics, and certification; sustainable financing as the prevailing barrier, encompassing grant limitations, private pay inequities, absent Medicaid reimbursement, and the need for cost-effectiveness evidence; and cultural concordance as the prevailing facilitator, including cultural matching, addressing social determinants, and lived experience as motivation. Sustainable doula integration requires reconciling system demands for standardization with the relational, culturally responsive characteristics that define effective care, through Medicaid reimbursement pathways and policy reforms developed in partnership with doula communities. Full article

Background: Families caring for children with medical complexity (CMC) face sustained psychosocial demands that may impair health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and mental health. A clear map of how these outcomes are assessed and which factors shape them is needed to guide family-centered care. Methods: We conducted a scoping review following the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, and reports were prepared according to the PRISMA guidelines. Searches were conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, and EMBASE (January 2011 to December 2023) to find studies reporting on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and/or mental health outcomes (anxiety, depression, burden) of family members and/or caregivers of CMC, including operationalization based on complex chronic condition (CCC) classifications, technology dependency, or the Pediatric Medical Complexity Algorithm (PMCA). Two reviewers independently screened records and recorded data, and the findings were synthesized narratively and thematically. Results: Sixty-seven studies met the inclusion criteria and spanned cross-sectional, cohort, case–control, pre–post and qualitative designs across conditions such as epilepsy, congenital heart disease, cerebral palsy, technology dependence and cancer. Common measures were PedsQL™ Family Impact Module, SF-36/12, HADS, Beck inventories and Zarit burden scales. Across the included studies, caregivers, predominantly mothers, frequently reported poorer HRQoL and higher levels of anxiety, depressive symptoms, or burden than comparison groups when these were available. Six recurrent themes emerged: (1) gendered caregiving with disproportionate maternal burden; (2) socio-economic gradients and financing models shaping outcomes; (3) culture, religion and spirituality as coping resources; (4) family and social support buffering distress; (5) school participation and coordinated services potentially reducing burden; and (6) interdependence between caregiver and child outcomes. Conclusions: Heterogeneous CMC definitions, outcome measures, and study designs limited comparability across studies. The mapped evidence suggests that family HRQoL and mental health outcomes are shaped by interacting clinical, social, and contextual factors. These findings may inform more family-centered and equity-oriented approaches to care. Future research should harmonize CMC definitions, standardize outcome measures, and prospectively evaluate multicomponent interventions. Full article

Singapore’s AI sustainability discourse has intensified around data centre energy demand and ESG finance, yet how public attention and affect co-evolve in response to policy events remains poorly understood. This study analyses 3305 Singapore-related Reddit documents (709 original posts, 2596 comments) from 2022 to 2025 using Structural Topic Modelling (K = 15) and transformer-based emotion classification. Topic prevalence is modelled as a function of year; emotion classification is restricted to original posts as discourse-initiating units. Three focal events structure the analysis: ChatGPT-3.5’s launch (November 2022), Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0 (December 2023), and intensified ESG attention (March 2024). Results reveal pronounced event-linked topical restructuring, most notably a 345% surge in Energy Markets discourse following ChatGPT-3.5, alongside compositional shifts confirmed by ILR-transformed Welch t-tests and Euclidean distance analysis. However, the affective register of original posts remains stable and predominantly neutral throughout, with intermittent fear (mean classifier confidence 71.3%) and no evidence of sustained directional change in emotion intensities. Latent dimensional analysis identifies three affective structures, namely Pragmatic Neutrality, Evaluative Engagement, and Affective Valence, with AI energy topics clustering in the pragmatic-curiosity region. These findings suggest that Singapore’s technocratic governance culture and affective saturation from chronic environmental exposure produce a discourse in which topical reconfiguration unfolds without corresponding emotional mobilisation. Full article

Waste pollution is becoming a major health issue in many developing nations. Waste-reduction options have been investigated and proposed, but environmental culture-based initiatives have not. This study explores and advances Vietnamese families’ environmental culture related to waste management, using the Culture Tower framework and a contingent valuation method coupled with a Bayesian model (CVBM). Specifically, descriptive statistics measure environmental literacy, while CVBM determines household willingness-to-pay (WTP) and estimates WTP for waste treatment services (WTP4WTS). Based on our survey of 487 households across 11 communes and wards in Hai Phong City, local waste pollution has decreased over time, although the respondents remain concerned. Over 13% of households were dissatisfied with waste treatment services (WTSs), while approximately 50% were neutral. Most respondents (79.26%) were willing to pay for improved WTSs, with an average WTP of 60,200 VND (US$2.32) per household per month. Behavioral and perceptual factors, such as the desire for improved waste services, current perceived waste pollution, and the perception that pollution has worsened, were found to significantly influence this willingness. Our study makes three major contributions. First, it develops a novel CVBM framework that links environmental culture and an economic valuation method, strengthening green economy micro-behavioral research. Second, it advances the circular economy literature by highlighting household engagement and willingness-to-pay as key drivers of sustainable waste financing and resource-loop closure. Third, it provides empirical evidence to inform and refine Vietnam’s revised Law on Environmental Protection (2020), particularly in implementing the “polluter pays” principle, promoting waste classification at the source, and designing socially acceptable environmental financing mechanisms. Full article

The rapid evolution of fintech has accelerated the integration of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies into crowdfunding platforms, reshaping entrepreneurial finance and challenging traditional conceptions of money, intermediation, and financial risk. This study empirically examines the socio-cultural, demographic, and behavioural factors influencing funders’ perceptions and investment decisions in crypto-crowdfunding, an emerging model situated at the intersection of digital currencies, financial inclusion, and decentralised capital formation. Using primary survey data from a focus group of 50 respondents measuring perceptions through a structured five-point Likert questionnaire, the analysis investigates how risk perception, trust and security, investor awareness, and perceived benefits shape participation in crypto-crowdfunded projects. The findings indicate that blockchain-based features such as transparency and decentralisation are associated with variations in perceived trust and risk assessment, rather than uniformly enhancing investor confidence. Socio-demographic characteristics emerge as significant determinants of investor awareness, perceived risks, and expected benefits, confirming pronounced behavioural heterogeneity in digital-finance participation. Regression results reveal strong interdependencies between trust, risk perception, and awareness, underscoring the importance of informational quality and risk-governance mechanisms in supporting sustainable adoption. By providing empirical evidence on individual-level determinants of participation in crypto-crowdfunding, the study contributes to the literature on the future of money by clarifying how crypto-crowdfunding operates as a behavioural-financial phenomenon embedded in decentralised governance structures. Full article

During the last 15 years, the territorial strategy of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has supported initiatives focused on promoting the sustainable growth of European fishing communities, such as establishing Museums of the Sea. These museums emphasize the preservation, safeguarding, and enhancement of both tangible and intangible maritime cultural heritage, turning territorial and identity resources into valuable assets with significant potential for cultural and educational tourism. They are essential in enhancing local identity and sense of belonging, along with the social appreciation of the fishing profession. This research collects and examines data originating from five Museums of the Sea founded since 2000 in the province of A Coruña (Galicia, Spain) with CFP financing. Findings emphasize the connections between the Museums of the Sea, education and tourism, creating opportunities for local growth in fishing-reliant areas, promoting economic variety, safeguarding maritime heritage, and strengthening maritime identity. Full article