Search Results (292)

Background: Blockchain is increasingly proposed to strengthen pharmaceutical traceability, anti-counterfeiting, and chain of custody in multi-actor supply chains, but the evidence base remains heterogeneous in technical rigor and operational clarity. Methods: We conducted a mapping review of Scopus and Web of Science to map publication patterns, identify dominant thematic configurations, and compare citation-salient studies across recurring solution profiles and operational design dimensions. The final corpus comprised 103 records. Results: The literature expanded rapidly from 2019 to 2025, with notable geographic concentration and dissemination mainly through technically focused outlets. Keyword analysis identified a core traceability theme, an implementation stream centered on smart contracts, Ethereum, and security, and additional streams involving vaccines and regulatory or credentialing concerns. Citation-salient studies clustered into implemented systems and prototypes, architecture or framework proposals, and contextual maturity or decision-layer evidence. Across these profiles, transferability depended less on platform choice than on governance and access-control assumptions, modular smart contract roles, and verifiable on-chain/off-chain data placement. Conclusions: Chain-of-custody semantics and evaluation methods remain inconsistently formalized, limiting cross-study comparability and the interpretability of operational claims. Benchmark-oriented assessments and minimal reporting standards specifying governance parameters, logistics scope and checkpoints, workload, measurement conditions, and concrete evidence artifacts are needed. Full article

Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, operates one of the world’s largest district heating (DH) systems in the coldest national capital (heating degree-days ~5800). Despite serving over 60% of the city’s 1.6 million residents, the current 3rd generation DH system suffers from high thermal losses (~17–18%) and relies on coal-fired combined heat and power plants. Transitioning to 4th generation district heating (4GDH) with lower supply temperatures could reduce these losses while enabling future low-temperature renewable energy integration. A geographic information system (GIS)-based spatial heat load density (HLD) analysis uses operational data from the Ulaanbaatar District Heating Company, encompassing 13,500 buildings with a total connected capacity of 3924 MW. Grid-based spatial analysis was performed at two resolutions (1 km² and 2 km²). Threshold sensitivity analysis was conducted across HLD criteria of 1–5 MW/km². Results indicate that median HLD values exceed the European reference threshold of 3 MW/km², with log-normal distributions confirmed by Shapiro–Wilk tests. Three candidate pilot zones were identified. A hybrid temperature strategy (65/35 °C above −25 °C; 90/60 °C below) further contextualizes the findings. These results suggest spatially favorable conditions for 4GDH development, providing a quantitative foundation for subsequent techno-economic feasibility studies. Full article

Robust and transferable approaches for evaluating research capacity—whose measurable expression is reflected in research output—are essential for evidence-based science policy and strategic research management. This study develops an integrated framework to assess global scholarly capacity and regional disparities by combining semantic-similarity-based literature filtering, bibliometric mapping, dynamic performance assessment, and spatial analytical techniques into a coherent and replicable model. A Sentence-BERT model ensures thematic precision and dataset consistency, while CiteSpace 6.1.R3 is used tomap publication trajectories, thematic evolution, and influential contributors. A dynamically weighted TOPSIS model incorporates temporal variation to quantify national research capacity, and spatial analyses—including gravity center analysis, Theil index decomposition, spatial autocorrelation, gray relational analysis, and the Geographical Detector Model—identify disparity patterns and their explanatory associations. Applied to urban ecosystem security research (2001–2023), an emerging interdisciplinary field within sustainability science, the framework shows that China and the United States dominate research output, whereas European journals exert strong academic influence. The field has advanced through three stages, with increasing emphasis on ecosystem services and sustainable development. GDP, environmental pressure, and urbanization rate show the strongest explanatory associations with research capacity, and interactive effects—especially those involving GDP—exceed single-factor explanatory strength. Ecological baseline conditions such as NDVI and climate exhibit only limited associations, functioning mainly as contextual factors. Policy implications highlight four priorities: strengthening interdisciplinary and cross-regional collaboration in developing regions; promoting equity-oriented research agendas in developed regions; establishing unified definitions and validated evaluation frameworks; and advancing dynamic, systems-based approaches to ecosystem security analysis. By shifting attention from ecological status assessment to the dynamics of scientific knowledge production and research capacity, this study advances methodological foundations for research evaluation and enriches analytical approaches in urban ecosystem security, offering a generalizable framework for identifying capacity differences and supporting evidence-informed policy design. Full article

Accurate mapping of near-surface air temperature ($T_{\mathrm{air}}$) at the fine spatial resolution is required for city-scale monitoring and remains a critical challenge in Earth Observation (EO). Reliance on ground-based measurements is constrained by their sparse spatial coverage and high operational costs. We present a novel, scalable machine learning framework designed to overcome this limitation. Our method utilizes interpretable Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to fuse high-resolution Landsat data, integrating both thermal and reflective spectral bands, with contextual spatiotemporal metadata. This approach allows for inference, at 30 m resolution, of $T_{\mathrm{air}}$ fields without relying on dense, localized ground monitoring networks. Our hybrid CNN architecture is optimized for spatial generalization, maintaining strong and transferable performance (station-wise $R^2\approx 0.88$) across diverse environments from humid coasts ($R^2\approx 0.89$) to arid interiors ($R^2\approx 0.84$). Although focused on a specific geographical region, our results suggest a robust and reproducible pathway for generating spatially consistent temperature fields from globally available EO archives, directly supporting urban heat island mitigation, climate policy development, and high-resolution public health assessment worldwide. Full article

Background: Burn injuries have both physical and psychological impacts on patients. Factors such as personal beliefs, prior experiences, and geographic, economic, or cultural barriers, as well as fear of hospitals, can contribute to delays in seeking specialized care. When combined with inadequate first aid or the inappropriate use of pharmaceutical or traditional remedies, these delays may worsen burn severity, prolong healing, and negatively affect quality of life. From a clinical perspective, delayed presentation following burn injury has been linked to burn wound progression, which increases the risk of local infection, hypertrophic scarring and prolonged functional impairment. Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted at the Clinical Emergency Hospital of Bucharest between January and September 2025. The primary objective was to characterize adult burn patients presenting more than 24 h after injury (Group A) and to describe self-reported psychosocial/behavioral characteristics and explore unadjusted patterns among delayed presenters. Data were collected from medical records and a structured questionnaire administered to delayed presenters. A secondary descriptive comparison was performed with patients presenting within 24 h (Group B) to provide contextual reference. Results: The majority of patients were male (62.2%) and of working age (18–65 years, 82.4%). Thermal burns from domestic accidents were most common (58.8%), with scalds predominating. Second-degree burns were the most frequent (60.5%), primarily affecting the upper and lower limbs. Mean total body surface area (TBSA) was low (2.86 ± 1.91%), although higher values were observed in radiation burns and closed-space accidents. More than half of the patients did not receive any first aid, while the remainder used various pharmaceutical or natural products, some of which were inappropriate for burn treatment. The main reasons for delaying specialized care were the expectation that injuries would heal spontaneously, negligence, and fear of the hospital. In contrast, escalating pain, edema, and family insistence were the primary motivators for seeking professional medical attention. Delayed presentation was associated with older burn lesions, higher burn severity and an increased likelihood of hospitalization or refusal of recommended admission. Conclusions: Burn injuries predominantly affect working-age males and most frequently arise from domestic thermal accidents. Delayed presentation and inadequate first aid are common and influenced by behavioral, social, and demographic factors. Targeted public education, improved first aid practices, and timely healthcare-seeking are essential to reduce burn severity and improve patient outcomes. Full article

Located in northeastern Anatolia, Çıldır and Ardahan serve as a gateway to the Caucasus for political entities such as the state and mobile groups such as the tribe. Due to this geopolitical characteristic, the region has fallen under the dominion of numerous states and civilizations throughout history. With its fertile highlands, Lake Çıldır, and natural water resources like the Kura River, the area constitutes an attractive living space for hem settled agriculturalists and nomadic tribe groups subsisting on animal husbandry. These features have profoundly influenced the ethnic, demographic, socio-economic, and cultural fabric of the region. Following the establishment of Ottoman sovereignty in the 16th century, Çıldır and Ardahan assumed a vital role in the state’s Caucasian and Eastern policies. This research addresses the Turkmen tribe and other ethnic communities residing around the eyalet of Çıldır and the sanjak of Ardahan. It further examines the banditry activities carried out by these groups, the attitudes of central and local administrators toward such activities, migration and settlement patterns, and the economic and political pressures exerted by the Russian State upon these tribes. The political and economic pressures exerted by the Russian State on these tribes reflect a broader imperial strategy of frontier making, as discussed by Khodarkovsky in the context of Russia’s expansion into its southern borderlands. By positioning the region as a negotiated frontier, this study moves beyond a descriptive narrative to analyze how tribal mobility and settlement functioned as tools of sovereignty and resistance within the broader context of Ottoman state formation and trans-imperial rivalry. The methodology employed in this study is the Qualitative Research Method; accordingly, documents from the Presidential Ottoman Archives (BOA) were transcribed, and the relevant sections were interpreted and incorporated into the study. The archival findings are contextualized within recent historiographical debates concerning the shifting definition of the state versus nomadic agency during the transition from the 18th to the 19th century. While existing literature contains academic studies aiming to elucidate the archaeological, geographical, economic, and administrative structures of Çıldır and Ardahan, it has been determined that no academic research has been conducted to analyze the ethno-socio-demographic structure of the region specifically focusing on the 18th and 19th centuries in a historical sense. With this focus on the interplay between imperial frontiers and tribal identity, this study provides a critical analysis of how local dynamics shaped the grand strategies of the Ottoman and Russian Empires. Full article

The transition from cash-based transactions to digital wallet usage represents a structural change in the business practices of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in emerging economies. This study aims to synthesize scientific evidence on digital wallet adoption among microentrepreneurs, analyze the geographical distribution of research, and consolidate key empirical findings, with a specific focus on Asia and Latin America. These regions are of particular interest because they share high levels of economic informality, strong reliance on cash-based transactions, and rapid expansion of digital financial technologies, while also facing institutional, regulatory, and infrastructural constraints that shape technology adoption among microentrepreneurs. A systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Searches were performed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, including open access empirical studies published between 2021 and 2025 in English or Spanish. After applying predefined eligibility criteria and removing duplicates, 39 studies were included in the final analysis. The results indicate that most publications originate from Asian countries, particularly India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, whereas Latin America is mainly represented by Colombia and Peru. Across both regions, digital wallet adoption is consistently influenced by trust, perceived security, perceived usefulness, and ease of use, while perceived risk and institutional weaknesses emerge as contextual barriers. Although several primary studies adopt a consumer-level analytical perspective, their findings are extrapolated to microentrepreneur contexts by emphasizing transaction-related behaviors directly linked to business operations. This review acknowledges that the predominance of consumer-focused evidence represents a limitation when interpreting firm-level outcomes. Overall, the findings suggest that digital wallet adoption among microentrepreneurs is a socio-technical process shaped by behavioral, institutional, and regulatory factors rather than technology alone. Full article

Climate change is a critical global challenge, and the building sector accounts for nearly 30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, remaining a key target for mitigation. Indoor environments contribute significantly to GHG emissions, primarily through heating, cooling, lighting, and occupant-driven energy use. Indoor mapping, serving as the foundation for Digital Twins (DTs), provides a spatiotemporal framework that integrates sensor data with Building Information Modelling (BIM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Internet of Things (IoT) to support energy-efficient, low-carbon building operations. This review examined the role of indoor mapping in understanding, modelling, and reducing GHG emissions in buildings. It synthesized current advancements in indoor spatial data acquisition, ranging from Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) to deep learning-based floor plan extraction, and evaluated their contribution to improved indoor environmental analysis. The review highlighted emerging techniques, challenges, and gaps, particularly the limited integration of physical indoor spaces with virtual layers representing assets, occupants, and equipment. Addressing this gap requires embedding spatial modelling as an intermediate analytical layer that structures and contextualizes sensor data to support spatiotemporal decision-making. Overall, this review demonstrated that indoor mapping plays a critical role in transforming spatial information into actionable insights, enabling more accurate energy modelling, enhanced real-time building management, and stronger data-driven strategies for GHG mitigation in the built environment. Full article

Background: Global dementia policies advocate for early or timely diagnosis, yet evidence on benefits or harms remains limited. This systematic review evaluates quantitative evidence comparing outcomes of early versus late and timely versus untimely dementia diagnoses. Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, the protocol was registered on PROSPERO. Comprehensive searches of PsycINFO, Medline, Embase, SCOPUS, and CINAHL were conducted without date restrictions. Eligible studies defined diagnostic timing and examined associations with outcomes for people with dementia and/or carers. Quality was appraised using the QuADS tool, and data were narratively synthesised. Results: Four studies (2018–2021) met inclusion criteria, encompassing 37,341 individuals with dementia and 1409 carers across Europe and the United States. Three studies investigated early versus late diagnosis; one assessed perceived timeliness. Definitions varied. Evidence of benefit was limited: one study reported a 9–23% reduction in mortality risk for early diagnosis. Another found that carers perceiving the diagnosis as untimely experienced greater and more persistent emotional distress. No significant associations were observed for cognitive or functional decline, hospitalisation, or emergency department attendance. Conclusions: Despite strong policy endorsement, empirical evidence on benefits of early or timely dementia diagnosis remains scarce, geographically narrow, and methodologically constrained. Future longitudinal studies explicitly defining diagnostic timing and incorporating psychosocial and contextual factors are needed to clarify potential benefits or harms for people with dementia and their carers. Full article

Fine-grain heterogeneity in agricultural landscapes is often obscured by coarse land-use classification schemes. This study provides a structural characterization of agricultural land use in selected sites within the Dukagjini and Kosova Plains of Kosovo using fine-grain, field-mapped data. Agricultural land-use structure was analyzed across three hierarchical classification levels, from broad categories to specific crop types, focusing on patterns of composition and configuration. Descriptive analyses and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) were used to examine structural patterns across thematic resolution and spatial grouping, with topographic and geographic variables included as contextual variables. Landscape metrics derived from field mapping were also compared with the ESA WorldCover dataset to evaluate how global land-cover products represent agricultural landscape structure. The results show that coarse classifications limit detectable structural differentiation. While broad land-use categories showed limited compositional variation and low diversity, finer classification levels revealed stronger contrasts in composition, configuration, and diversity. At the finest classification level, significant differentiation was detected among villages and municipalities, while contrasts between plains were weak. Topographic and geographic variables showed limited but detectable associations with structural patterns. Overall, this study provides a descriptive baseline of agricultural land-use structure in a data-scarce region. Full article

Organizations have been moving on-premises data functionalities to cloud storage environments. The need for advanced hybrid cryptography is deemed a promising solution for securing data on cloud storage. This scoping review explores the application of hybrid cryptographic systems for data hiding in cloud storage. It focuses on identifying global research trends, technological approaches, and contextual gaps in implementation. The review systematically examines the literature from major scholarly databases to identify existing models that combine traditional and modern cryptographic techniques to enhance data confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity against cloud-based security threats. Out of the 8250 eligible papers, 24 were included in the review. The findings reveal that the majority of scholarly contributions originate from Asia, averaging 87.5%, as reflected in the distribution of included articles by continent. Particularly, India and China dominate in the space, with a complete absence of studies from Africa, including South Africa. This geographical disparity underscores a significant research gap in the contextualization of hybrid cryptographic frameworks suited to Africa’s unique infrastructural and regulatory environments. The review further reveals a limited focus on the development of lightweight, scalable, and adaptable hybrid cryptographic schemes. Such approaches are essential for addressing challenges related to bandwidth limitations, computational efficiency, and regulatory compliance in developing regions. Consequently, this study contributes by establishing a comprehensive knowledge map of hybrid cryptography for cloud security, emphasizing the necessity for region-specific, context-aware frameworks. The findings provide a foundation for future investigations aimed at developing robust efficient hybrid cryptographic models that can strengthen data security in African cloud infrastructures. Full article

This study aimed to evaluate the application of mathematical modeling in sustainable community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM), paying particular attention to the incorporation of financial risk mitigation mechanisms such as insurance and community-based risk pooling. A structured literature search was conducted in the Scopus and ScienceDirect databases, followed by bibliometric and qualitative analysis of relevant studies in mathematics, economics, and disaster management. During the analysis, 17 peer-reviewed journal articles met the inclusion criteria and were examined based on publication trends, geographical distribution, modeling methods, and the extent to which financial protection mechanisms were incorporated into quantitative frameworks. The findings indicated growing academic interest in recent years and showed considerable methodological diversity, including stochastic optimization, vulnerability indices, agent-based simulations, and econometric models. Despite these advancements, major financial risk mitigation elements, such as premium design, fund management, and payout procedures, remained inadequately incorporated into existing modeling structures and were frequently addressed as separate analytical components. The focus on studies in high-income countries raised concerns about contextual applicability in climate-vulnerable and low-income regions. The review showed the need for more operationally incorporated modeling frameworks that connect quantitative risk assessment with community-level financial resilience strategies to support sustainable CBDRM. Full article

Geographical exclaves face distinctive development challenges as spatial separation creates cross-border dependencies and institutional vulnerabilities. Musandam Governorate, Oman’s exclave separated from the mainland by United Arab Emirates (UAE) territory, exemplifies how exclave status shapes development trajectories, cross-border interactions, and population resilience. This study examines Musandam’s socio-economic dynamics, development patterns, and cross-border relationships, addressing gaps in understanding how exclave residents navigate spatial discontinuity while maintaining mainland and cross-border connections. Mixed methods combined quantitative assessment using the adapted Vera Carstairs Index (VCI) across seven domains (education, skills, employment, housing, living environment, household facilities, health) with qualitative fieldwork spanning four campaigns (2019–2023). Semi-structured interviews with 47 residents across all four wilayaat (provinces), complemented by citizen science approaches engaging twelve community participants, documented mobility patterns and cross-border transactions. Secondary data from the 2010 Population Census and national statistics provided contextual depth. Findings reveal two of four Musandam wilayaat (Daba and Khasab) ranking in the lower half nationally, with low health scores (ranks 1 and 9) and education institution deficits reflecting structural integration into transnational economic and services systems. COVID-19 border closures amplified pre-existing dependencies, converting eight-month isolation into a humanitarian crisis with food shortages, medicine unavailability, and social fragmentation. Residents maintain stronger functional connections with UAE cities than with mainland Oman despite preserving national identity. Policy implications emphasize six strategic priorities: higher education institutions, transportation infrastructure, marine fisheries development, tourism enhancement, small-medium enterprise facilitation, and residential land provision. Full article

Drawing on the ecological economic system theory, this paper constructs a theoretical model to analyze the impact of enterprise digital transformation on carbon emissions and the critical mechanism of green innovation therein. Empirical evidence based on data from China’s A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2024 indicates the following: First, enterprise digital transformation significantly reduces corporate carbon emissions. This conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness checks and endogeneity treatments. Second, digital transformation promotes carbon reduction primarily by increasing the quantity of green innovation, whereas the mediating role of green innovation quality has not yet manifested. Third, heterogeneity analysis confirms our theoretical deductions, revealing that this carbon reduction effect is significantly stronger in regions with high environmental regulation intensity and is predominantly manifested in highly polluting industries. Fourth, descriptive spatial analysis indicates that digital transformation is associated with reduced carbon emissions in surrounding areas, exhibiting broader regional environmental correlations as the geographic range expands. Finally, the implementation of policy instruments, represented by carbon trading and low-carbon city construction, reinforces the carbon reduction effect of digital transformation. By integrating internal technological processes, contextual heterogeneities, descriptive spatial observations, and macro-policy environments, this paper provides holistic insights into the synergistic evolution of enterprise digitalization and green transition. Full article

This study examines how research in the United States has addressed infrastructure resilience across different disaster contexts, situating the topic within broader discussions on climate-related risks and adaptation. Infrastructure resilience has gained increasing importance as communities face more frequent and severe natural hazards and as infrastructure systems become more complex and interconnected. A database of more than 7000 studies published over the past century by universities, research centers, and government agencies was compiled and organized, including supplemental works from regions such as Europe, Australia, Japan, Africa, and South America. The dataset provides a long-term perspective on the evolution of resilience-related research and reflects the scope of accessible literature indexed in major research repositories. Using systematic classification, each study was categorized by disaster type (i.e., floods, hurricanes, wildfires, heatwaves, and snowstorms) and by infrastructure system (i.e., transportation, water, energy, telecommunications, and buildings). A keyword-based relevance scoring method was applied to distinguish studies in which resilience is a central analytical focus from those in which it appears as a secondary or contextual concept. The results are presented through an interactive web-based platform that enables users to explore resilience research by state, year, disaster type, infrastructure category, and level of relevance. The analysis reveals a substantial increase in resilience-related publications in recent decades, with notable geographic and thematic concentrations. Transportation and water infrastructure dominates the literature, while energy systems, telecommunications, and digital infrastructure remain underrepresented. These findings highlight both progress and persistent gaps in infrastructure resilience research and support more integrated, system-oriented, and future-focused resilience planning. Full article