Search Results (3,922)

The core predicament of energy transition lies not in the availability of clean technologies, but in whether an economy possesses the institutional capacity and social foundation to systematically regulate its carbon-energy metabolic processes. Drawing upon co-evolutionary theory from evolutionary economics, this paper constructs a composite indicator of Low-Carbon Green Energy Eco-Co-evolution (LCEE) encompassing three functional dimensions: efficiency advancement, kinetic energy replacement, and boundary adherence. Concurrently, by integrating innovation ecosystem theory with inclusive development theory, we propose the concept of “Inclusive Potential of Regional Innovation Ecosystems” (IEP), characterizing the systemic potential for transforming innovation outcomes into social welfare across four dimensions: Knowledge Matrix Abundance (KMF), Cultural Capillary Permeation (CCP), Technological Community Succession (TCS), and Social Root Nourishment (SRN). Taking China’s 2016 intellectual property (IP) powerhouse construction pilot as the institutional prototype of Industrial Intellectual Property Upgrading Reform (IPR), we incorporate IPR, IEP, and LCEE into a unified causal analytical framework, proposing a testable transmission logic of ‘institutional supply → ecological development → co-evolutionary synergy. Using panel data from 30 Chinese provincial-level administrative regions over 2010–2022, we employ a Spatial Durbin Difference-in-Differences (SDM-DID) model to identify the direct and spatial spillover effects of IPR on LCEE, and embed a Double Machine Learning (DML) framework to test the mediating mechanism of IEP while controlling for high-dimensional nonlinear interference. The findings reveal that IPR exerts a significant and robust direct promoting effect on LCEE, generating positive spatial spillovers to neighboring regions through the public disclosure of patent information. IEP significantly promotes local LCEE, yet its spatial spillover lacks statistical support due to structural conflicts in inter-dimensional transmission attributes. IEP plays a significant partial mediating role between IPR and LCEE, with the indirect effect accounting for over one-third of the total effect, a finding robust to alternative machine learning algorithms, sample split adjustments, and exclusion of contemporaneous competing policies. Sub-path tests reveal that KMF bears the strongest mediating efficacy, serving as the primary transmission channel, while CCP exhibits full mediation—the institutional effect on LCEE in the cultural dimension depends almost entirely on the mediating transformation through the public cultural service system. Heterogeneity analysis further demonstrates full mediation in the Low-Carbon Green Energy Eco-Kinetic Replacement (KER) dimension, indicating that the institutional catalytic effect on clean energy substitution must be realized through IEP transformation. This paper provides empirical evidence for the proposed causal pathway through which institutional public goods indirectly enhance the synergistic quality of carbon-energy transition via the inclusive potential of innovation ecosystems, providing theoretical foundations and policy implications that, while grounded in China’s institutional context, may offer valuable reference points for emerging market economies facing similar dual pressures of technological constraints and green transition. Full article

The rapid development of the low-altitude economy is reshaping tourism activities, infrastructure provision, and landscape resource use, yet national-scale research on low-altitude tourism bases remains limited. Using data on 1247 bases in China, this study applies average nearest-neighbor analysis, kernel density estimation, and spatial inequality measures to characterize multi-scale patterns. The study further employs an optimal parameters-based geographical detector within a geographical nature framework to identify influencing factors and interactions. The results reveal significant clustering and regional inequality, with a pronounced east–west divide along the Heihe–Tengchong Line. A diamond-shaped core bounded by Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Sanya, together with its 200 km buffer zone, contains 89.17% of all bases. Domestic tourism revenue, the number of low-altitude industry enterprises, general aviation airports, national tourist resorts, and domestic tourist arrivals constitute the leading factors, although the dominant factor combinations vary across base types. Factor interactions are dominated by two-factor and nonlinear enhancement. The three natures form a coupled pathway: first nature provides environmental suitability, second nature transforms resource potential into marketable tourism products, and third nature regulates implementation. General aviation infrastructure acts as an operational interface linking environmental conditions, tourism demand, industrial support, and policy arrangements. The findings provide a basis for differentiated regional zoning and type-specific facility planning, thereby informing the sustainable development of low-altitude tourism. Full article

East Asia is both the densest subsystem of the global liner shipping network and the home basin of its signature hazard, the typhoon. This study quantifies the relationship in both directions, as a stress test of the sustainability of maritime connectivity, across Alphaliner-based reconstructions of the 2017 and 2021 networks that cover every port with at least one scheduled liner service. A Typhoon Vulnerability Index built from validated IBTrACS exposure, betweenness sensitivity, and national adaptive capacity scores 330 and 272 affected ports. The risk geography anchors in East Asia in both years and more strongly in the second, as the regional share of affected ports is 29 percent in 2017 and 44 percent in 2021, the 2017 top five are all East Asian, and the 2021 top four are all Chinese, led by Shanghai. Removing every indexed typhoon port in descending risk order destroys 47.5 and 41.3 percent of baseline efficiency. Equal-sized random removals destroy a similar share at the end, so the information of the hazard ordering lies earlier and elsewhere, in early losses that run about forty percent above the random expectation, in seven of the ten earliest failures being invisible to degree screening, and in the identity of the removed ports, while equal-depth-degree targeting destroys far more at every stage. An East Asia-only attack reproduces a third of the full attack’s damage in 2017 and half in 2021. Under one fixed baseline, East Asia carries 23.8 and 24.6 percent of global efficiency before the attack and its survivors retain 7.1 and 3.6 percent after it. On the evidence of these two years, the typhoon corridor is a jointly held systemic asset, its protection is a problem shared by the three economies, and the bidirectional accounting gives sustainable maritime transport a measurable resilience baseline under a warming climate. Full article

Ecuadorian aquaculture plays an increasingly important role in food security, providing a sustainable complement to capture fisheries. Manabí constitutes a key economic sector that contributes to employment generation, income diversification, and supply of high-quality protein. However, the sector’s heterogeneity and limited legal registration of enterprises hinder the development of policies and targeted interventions. This study characterizes aquaculture enterprises in Manabí, integrating productive, technological, and socio-economic variables obtained from field surveys. Three distinct entrepreneurship patterns were identified: small-scale, informal farms cultivating native species with low technology but characteristics that may contribute to socio-ecological resilience; semi-formal producers operating with intermediate technology and mixed species; and freshwater shrimp farms operating at the largest relative scale within the sample, though still small-scale and family-based, with moderate technological development and market integration limited mainly to local and regional markets. The typology focused on a gradient in formalization, technological sophistication, and market orientation among enterprises. These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of aquaculture diversity in Manabí and offer a practical framework for differentiated policy design using a Strategic Producer Positioning Map. Strengthening formalization, technological innovation, environmental management, and social inclusion is essential to enhance the sector’s sustainability and competitiveness, contributing to sustainable blue economy development in coastal Ecuador. Full article

Uganda hosts one of the largest refugee populations in Africa, with South Sudanese refugees forming the majority. Uganda’s progressive approach to refugee protection is recognized globally as a model for economic inclusion, integration, and self-reliance. Notwithstanding global praise, empirical evidence indicates an increasingly challenging situation for refugees’ socio-economic well-being and the difficulties this poses for pursuing sustainable lives. With limited access to agricultural land, limited formal employment opportunities, and rising budget cuts, refugees in rural settlements are often compelled to diversify their livelihoods and enter the informal economy, where home-brewed alcohol production is a visible strategy. Drawing on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork in Bidibidi from January 2025 to August 2025, this paper explores the attractions and dilemmas of home-brewed alcohol production and sale as a rural livelihood from the perspectives of South Sudanese refugees and host communities in Bidibidi. This paper advances a debate on the under-researched prospects of refugee integration and inclusion through rural livelihoods. These findings suggest areas where Uganda’s current refugee settlement agenda and alcohol policies may benefit from reconsideration. In addition, this paper highlights gaps in refugee and host community involvement in policy making and proposes ways to better address their livelihood needs for socio-economic inclusion and local integration. Full article

Background: Current evidence on diabetes care interventions is either fragmented or focused on specific interventions targeting healthcare professionals or patients. This study aims to categorize diabetes care interventions involving physicians or nurses and their impact on health outcomes for individuals with diabetes. Additionally, it aimed to determine the proportion of favorable findings across healthcare intervention categories. Methods: This scoping review was conducted in primary care settings and guided by a health system framework. We searched articles from inception to June 2022 in databases including CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL. The classification of healthcare interventions was guided by the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care taxonomy and health system framework. Results: Results were reported following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews. From the initial pool of 13,406 articles, 116 met the eligibility criteria and reported interventions conducted across 119 countries or regions, of which 94 were high-level economies. Five healthcare intervention categories were identified: transforming the workforce; service content; re-designing the service delivery system; information and communication technology; and multifaceted. Patient health outcomes were classified into 3 overarching categories with 11 subcategories: clinical outcomes, behavioral outcomes, and psychosocial outcomes. The proportion of statistically significant favorable findings differed across intervention categories and outcome domains. Multifaceted interventions showed relatively higher proportions of favorable findings for clinical outcomes, whereas re-designing the service delivery system interventions showed relatively higher proportions for behavioral outcomes. ICT interventions frequently reported favorable findings related to blood glucose indicators. Conclusions: This study provides a comprehensive overview of healthcare interventions and health outcomes for diabetes in primary care settings. It emphasizes the importance of tailored interventions, delivery methods, and technology integration for effective diabetes management, advocating for a comprehensive approach from individual to societal levels. Full article

This study analyzes land use dynamics in Fălticeni Municipality over four decades (1985–2025), examining the influence of major political, socio-economic, and demographic changes on urban development. The transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, Romania’s democratic transformation and European integration, together with migration and population dynamics, have driven largely unregulated urban expansion at the expense of agricultural land and natural landscapes. Recent urban growth has also extended into areas with varying geomorphological vulnerability, increasing exposure to landslide hazards, while the city continues to face challenges related to abandoned industrial areas and insufficient forested land and green spaces. By integrating land use change analysis with physical vulnerability indicators, this study highlights the need for risk-informed and sustainable urban planning in medium-sized cities. It proposes a planning framework based on ecological zoning, controlled urban expansion on suitable terrain, brownfield redevelopment, the establishment of peri-urban forests, and the implementation of essential infrastructure supported by comprehensive geomorphological susceptibility assessments. The proposed approach provides practical guidance for enhancing urban resilience and can be replicated in other cities facing similar environmental and development challenges. Full article

The central challenge of the energy transition lies in whether an economy possesses the institutional capacity to systematically regulate its own energy inputs and carbon emissions. Drawing upon social metabolism theory, this study constructs an indicator of carbon–energy metabolic control capacity (CMCC). Building on business ecosystem theory, it conceptualizes the intelligent economic ecosystem (IEE) and incorporates industrial chain intellectual property empowerment (IP) into a causal framework of institutional provision → ecosystem development → enhancement of metabolic control capacity. Using panel data from 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China covering the period 2010–2022, this study employs a spatial Durbin difference-in-differences (SDID) model and a double machine learning (DML) framework for empirical analysis. The results indicate that industrial chain intellectual property empowerment significantly enhances carbon–energy metabolic control capacity and generates positive spatial spillover effects on neighboring regions through the public diffusion of patent information. Furthermore, intelligent economic ecological development serves as a significant partial mediator between intellectual property empowerment and carbon–energy metabolic control capacity, with the indirect effect accounting for more than one-third of the total effect. This mediating mechanism remains robust after replacing machine learning algorithms, altering sample-splitting ratios, controlling for concurrent innovation policies, and excluding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Path-specific mediation analysis further reveals that computing power acquisition and value transformation together with digital substrate robustness constitute the dominant transmission channels, whereas innovation metabolic flux contributes a relatively smaller mediating effect due to the long gestation period required for translating fundamental research into practical applications. Heterogeneity analysis further demonstrates that the transmission mechanism exhibits full mediation in the dimension of metabolic structure, indicating that the contribution of industrial chain intellectual property empowerment to the clean substitution of energy structures depends almost entirely on the mediating role of the intelligent economic ecosystem. These findings provide clear actionable guidelines for three specific policy-making domains to advance low-carbon transitions. First, intellectual property authorities should transition from quantity-driven patent creation to establishing cross-regional patent navigation and industrial chain IP pooling. Second, digital economy and industry regulators need to prioritize computing power value conversion (CCV) over raw infrastructure expansion to mitigate energy rebound effects. Third, energy and environmental agencies ought to integrate real-time algorithmic dispatching with green finance incentives. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that achieving deep low-carbon transformation requires leveraging institutional public goods to catalyze digital ecosystems, which in turn enable precise, dynamic carbon–energy metabolic control. Full article

The convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) is reshaping how the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector manages projects across their lifecycle, yet the systemic uptake of this convergence remains poorly understood in developing-economy contexts such as Morocco. This study examines the state, opportunities, and barriers of BIM–AI integration in Morocco’s AEC sector through a PRISMA-guided scoping review combined with a bibliometric analysis. An initial global search of Scopus and Web of Science identified 1842 records; after successive screening for relevance to BIM–AI integration and to the Moroccan context, six core studies were retained for detailed synthesis. The bibliometric analysis, covering the broader filtered corpus, shows a publication trend with three distinct growth phases between 2015 and 2025 and reveals that Moroccan research output on digital construction is disproportionately concentrated on energy-efficiency applications rather than construction management or structural engineering. The synthesis of the six core studies further indicates that BIM–AI integration in Morocco remains at an early, largely 3D-focused stage, with significant conceptual and empirical gaps. Building on these findings, this study proposes a three-tiered strategic roadmap, targeting policy, industry, and academia, to accelerate digital transformation and innovation in Morocco’s construction sector. Full article

Maritime transportation, handling over 80% of global trade, is critical to the world economy. Automatic Identification System (AIS) data provides extensive static and dynamic information of vessels, enabling trajectory reconstruction and vessel behavior analysis. Recently, trajectory clustering has become a key method for analyzing maritime traffic, offering valuable insights to improve traffic management and operational efficiency. This research aims to investigate how to effectively cluster ship sub-trajectories derived from AIS data by comparing two machine learning clustering algorithms, Density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) and spectral clustering, with a focus on improving data quality, extracting key dynamic features, and evaluating the effect of dimensionality reduction on clustering performance. Clustering sub-trajectories can help reveal localized navigation patterns and movement behaviors. The study implemented the proposed methods for tankers and cargo ships (with AIS data from 2022) in a Y-shaped channel in the Sabine-Neches Waterway (SNWW) in Southeast Texas, where the busiest docks are located. Finally, clustering performance was evaluated with the silhouette coefficient (SC), Davies–Bouldin Index (DBI), and Joint Performance Index (JPI), respectively. Experimental results show that DBSCAN effectively identifies dense, overlapping trajectory clusters and labels noise, while the spectral clustering algorithm detects subtle behavioral differences but struggles with less cohesive clusters, and does not explicitly handle noise. Full article

Historic urban manufacturing territories are increasingly being reconsidered as strategic components of metropolitan sustainability rather than obsolete remnants of industrial economies slated for redevelopment. While these districts have long been associated with pollution, environmental degradation, and post-industrial decline, growing interest in circular economy strategies, Urban Resource Recovery (URR), and climate adaptation has renewed attention to their territorial significance. Using the North Brooklyn Industrial Business Zone and the Newtown Creek watershed as a case study, this paper argues that certain historic manufacturing territories possess an inherent capacity to evolve into Metropolitan Metabolic Infrastructure because of inherited geographic, infrastructural, and institutional characteristics, including waterfront access, freight networks, industrial zoning, large industrial parcels, and utility systems. Drawing upon research developed through the New York City Department of Design and Construction’s Town+Gown Urban Resource Recovery Working Group, the study combines historical analysis, spatial interpretation, planning policy, and case-study research to examine the evolving relationship among urban metabolism, circular economy, environmental justice, and Healthy Cities. Rather than advocating industrial preservation irrespective of environmental performance, the paper argues that these territories can support metropolitan material circulation while advancing cleaner industrial practices, environmental remediation, and more equitable urban development. The Metropolitan Metabolic Infrastructure framework offers a planning perspective for understanding how inherited manufacturing landscapes may contribute to resilient, circular, and healthier metropolitan regions while informing future comparative research on industrial territories undergoing similar transitions worldwide. Full article

Industry 5.0 reframes industrial transformation as a human-centric, sustainable and resilient socio-technical transition. Yet comparable country-level evidence on the capabilities that enable this transition remains limited, particularly for late-digitalizing economies. This study benchmarks Türkiye against the 27 European Union member states using a systems-informed multi-criteria decision-making framework. Seven indicators represent three complementary capability domains: enterprise digitalization (artificial intelligence, cloud computing, data analytics and enterprise resource planning), human capability (basic or above-basic digital skills) and innovation capacity (R&D expenditure and high-technology exports). CRITIC–MARCOS is used as the primary model, while the full 2 × 2 combination of CRITIC and Entropy weighting with MARCOS and TOPSIS ranking, equal-domain weighting and indicator-exclusion tests assess sensitivity. Türkiye ranks 28th under CRITIC–MARCOS and remains between 26th and 28th across the principal specifications. Pairwise rank correlations range from 0.932 to 0.981, supporting the stability of Türkiye’s placement in the lower-readiness group despite variation in its exact rank across methods. Türkiye is below the unweighted EU-27 country mean for all indicators, with its largest relative shortfall in high-technology exports. The findings diagnose a structural gap in the digital, human-capability and innovation enablers of Industry 5.0; they do not measure the complete Industry 5.0 construct, particularly its direct human-centric, sustainability and resilience outcomes. Full article

Higher education institutions are increasingly expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining reliable educational, laboratory, and administrative operations. This challenge is particularly relevant in transition economies, where university campuses often depend on fossil-fuel-based electricity systems, natural-gas heating, and aging infrastructure. This study presents a campus-scale decarbonization assessment for the Tashkent Institute of Chemical Technology in Uzbekistan. The quantified inventory covered Scope 1 emissions from natural-gas combustion and Scope 2 emissions from purchased electricity. Paper use, digital services, behavioural measures, and campus greening were assessed as supplementary institutional indicators and were excluded from the quantified total because consistent pre- and post-intervention activity data were unavailable. The assessment combined institutional utility records for 2023–2025 with information on renewable-energy deployment, heating modernization, digital transformation, sustainability awareness, and campus greening. A 300 kW solar photovoltaic system comprising 666 modules was commissioned in May 2023, with a documented annualized generation potential of approximately 520,000 kWh. Purchased grid electricity amounted to 711,402, 745,947, and 749,060 kWh in 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively, while annual natural-gas consumption was 144,775, 161,200, and 142,031 m³. Using a conservative standard-based net calorific value of 31.8 MJ/m³ together with IPCC stationary-combustion factors, annual Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions were estimated at 637.53, 685.29, and 652.65 tCO₂-eq, respectively. The 2025 total was 4.76% below the 2024 value but 2.37% above the 2023 value. The annualized PV technical potential corresponds to a theoretical maximum Scope 2 displacement of 276.64 tCO₂-eq/year under 100% self-consumption. This value does not represent measured generation or a realized emission reduction and was not included in the quantified inventory. Digitalization, behavioural engagement, and greening were evaluated as complementary measures rather than assigned separate emission-reduction credits. The study provides a transparent and regionally relevant framework for universities in transition economies seeking to strengthen campus carbon management under incomplete data conditions. Full article

As religious tourism expands across Asia, it remains unclear who benefits from its growth and who is overlooked in policy and industry accounts. Drawing on fieldwork in the temple-towns of Jejuri and Tuljapur in Maharashtra, India, this paper aims to make a timely and original contribution about the significance of informal, family-run and ritual-linked enterprises to the centre of debates on entrepreneurship and inclusive tourism development. The study combines visitor surveys, detailed enterprise mapping and entrepreneur interviews to reveal a dense but precarious local economy which is sustained by religious retail (a term articulated for sale of items related to rituals), street vending and small-scale service provision. These micro-enterprises are culturally central but economically fragile, low-margin and weakly recognised in policy. The paper argues that entrepreneurship is constrained by traditional religious authority, informality, seasonality and limited innovation capacity, while rising visitor numbers are creating opportunities in travel, accommodation and food. It shows that sustainability in temple-towns depends on livelihood durability, socio-cultural continuity, participatory governance and distributional justice. By foregrounding actors often omitted from formal economic analysis, the paper reframes religious tourism as an embedded entrepreneurial ecosystem and calls for policies that strengthen local enterprise capability, resilience and participation. Full article

Understanding which segments of the economy drive aggregate stock market movements is central to risk management. This study traces how the economic drivers of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500) changed across two episodes: the 2020 COVID-19 shock and the 2025 technology-led period, using eleven sector indices and nine deep learning architectures. During COVID-19, forecasting power concentrated in Consumer Discretionary, Health Care, and Industrials before reorganizing sharply around Information Technology, consistent with a disruptive break. In 2025, Information Technology and market momentum dominated throughout, with no comparable reorganization, consistent with a gradual adjustment rather than a disruptive shift. This distinction, invisible from accuracy metrics alone (Gated Recurrent Unit: Mean Absolute Percentage Error = 3.41% and 2.16%), shows that information-concentration diagnostics can complement forecast-accuracy and risk-monitoring frameworks. Full article