Search Results (285)

Background: Preparing midwifery graduates to be confident, competent, and resilient is essential for workforce sustainability, yet students report a disconnect between academic preparation and clinical realities. Increasing care complexity, workforce shortages, and variable clinical learning environments globally highlight the need to examine how educational strategies support effective transition to practice. Objective: To map and synthesise the evidence regarding educational approaches, learning experiences, and transition-to-practice factors that influence preparedness for professional practice among midwifery students, and to identify gaps in the existing literature to inform a coherent and future-ready educational framework. Methods: A PRISMA-ScR-guided scoping review was conducted across seven databases. Data were extracted through a standardised template and analysed using narrative synthesis. Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method studies were examined for learning approaches, practice conditions, and transition experiences. Results: Three overarching domains and seven sub-domains were identified. Reflective practice, blended learning, simulation, and collaborative approaches were widely valued but inconsistently implemented. Students frequently experienced transition shock, limited scaffolding of higher-order thinking, variable supervision, with misalignment between curricula, competency frameworks, and clinical expectations, leading to uneven confidence and skill development. Educator capacity constraints particularly in feedback, reflection, and simulation pedagogy were recurrent barriers. Positive clinical environments and structured reflective opportunities consistently strengthened competence, identity formation, and readiness. Conclusion: Midwifery education is evolving towards contemporary, competency-based pedagogies, yet persistent inconsistencies undermine the reliability of graduate preparation. Strengthening curriculum coherence, standardising key learning experiences, investing in educator capability, and embedding structured reflection and simulation are essential. A unified educational framework that integrates these components is required to enable confident, adaptable, and practice-ready midwives. Full article

Background: An estimated 25 million children globally miss routine vaccinations each year, with 14.3 million classified as zero-dose and the majority residing in low- and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). Pharmacies are recognised as accessible healthcare delivery points, yet their role in paediatric immunisation in LMICs is not well defined. This literature review sought to evaluate pharmacist-provided vaccination services for paediatric patients in LMICs. Methods: A systematic review was conducted following Cochrane and PRISMA guidelines. Five databases and grey literature were searched for articles published between January 2005 and June 2026. Studies were reviewed by multiple authors to reduce the risk of individual bias and included if they reported original research involving pharmacists in LMICs delivering vaccination-related services to children aged 12 years and under. For each study, items intended for extraction included country, pharmacy setting, specific vaccines administered, patient age range, and specific roles for the pharmacist in the vaccination administration process. The protocol for this systematic review was registered with the Nelson Mandela University Faculty of Health Sciences Postgraduate Studies Committee and the Research Ethics Committee for Humans (H23-HEA-PHA-007). Results: Of 162 identified records, four studies from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, and Jordan met inclusion criteria. No study described pharmacists routinely administering paediatric vaccines. Instead, findings focused on indirect involvement, system readiness, and public perception. Significant barriers included limited infrastructure, inadequate training, and lack of regulatory authority. Study results were limited by a lack of information published and inclusion of only articles available in English. Conclusions: Evidence on pharmacist-administered paediatric vaccinations in LMICs is scarce. Expanding pharmacist roles could improve access and reduce zero-dose prevalence, but would require policy support, infrastructure investment, and further implementation research. Full article

This study examines households’ willingness to participate in the energy transition, with a particular focus on their readiness to invest in energy efficiency measures and modern heating technologies. The research is based on an empirical survey conducted on a representative sample of 1033 households. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used primarily as a conceptual and operational framework for organizing survey questions into three theoretically meaningful groups: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. These determinants were analyzed as precursors of behavioral intention, which is represented by the households’ willingness to invest. The results show that around 30% of households expressed willingness to invest, while the majority were unwilling. The relationships between TPB-related determinants and behavioral intention were examined using chi-square tests, p-values, and Cramer’s V as a measure of association strength. Among the analyzed determinants, attitude-related indicators—willingness to install rooftop solar panels and readiness to accept a reduction in living standards for environmental protection—showed somewhat stronger associations with behavioral intention. Indicators related to subjective norms were statistically significant but weakly associated with behavioral intention. Within perceived behavioral control, only previous investments in building energy retrofits were statistically significant. Full article

The accelerating energy transition and growing geopolitical uncertainty have strengthened the strategic importance of hydrogen within future low-carbon energy systems. Green hydrogen is increasingly recognized as a key energy carrier supporting industrial decarbonization, renewable energy integration, long-term energy storage and energy security. However, existing hydrogen market assessment approaches remain fragmented and frequently focus on isolated technological, regulatory, or investment-related dimensions without sufficiently integrating the systemic interactions that shape hydrogen market maturity. To address this research gap, this study proposes the Integrated Green Hydrogen Market Development Index (IGHMDI), a multidimensional composite indicator framework designed to evaluate hydrogen market development through the integration of regulatory, technological, infrastructural, financial and strategic dimensions. This methodological framework is based on established principles of composite indicator construction, including indicator selection, normalization, weighting, and aggregation procedures adapted to the characteristics of emerging hydrogen markets. The proposed framework incorporates six principal dimensions: regulatory and policy development, technological readiness, infrastructure and market integration, investment and financial readiness, market demand and industrial adoption, and international cooperation and strategic positioning. An illustrative pilot application comparing Croatia and Germany is used to demonstrate the operational logic of the framework and its ability to distinguish between hydrogen markets at different stages of development. The illustrative assessment produced composite IGHMDI scores of 65.0 for Croatia and 91.7 for Germany, demonstrating the framework’s capability to distinguish hydrogen markets at different stages of structural development while providing a transparent basis for comparative assessment. The results indicate that hydrogen market development increasingly depends on the interaction between regulatory stability, infrastructure readiness, technological innovation, investment support mechanisms, market demand, and international coordination. The study also acknowledges that broader empirical validation, sensitivity analysis, and longitudinal application across a larger set of countries are required in future research. Overall, the IGHMDI framework contributes to the development of multidimensional hydrogen market assessment methodologies and provides a transparent analytical tool for comparative benchmarking, policy evaluation, infrastructure prioritization, and future hydrogen transition governance. Full article

The accelerating digital transformation of urban economies is reshaping labor markets at unprecedented speed, generating skills mismatches, employment volatility, and widening inclusion gaps that current smart city governance frameworks are insufficiently equipped to address. While the smart city literature has advanced substantially in the areas of digital infrastructure, mobility, and e-government services, the governance of labor market transitions in data-driven urban environments remains conceptually underdeveloped. In particular, no integrated analytical framework currently links smart city governance, labor market intelligence, and workforce resilience into a coherent tool for assessing urban preparedness for technology-driven employment change. This study addresses that gap by developing the Urban Workforce Readiness Framework (UWRF)—an integrated conceptual model designed to evaluate how prepared urban labor markets are for accelerating digital and technological transformation. Methodologically, the framework is constructed through a structured synthesis of peer-reviewed scholarship published between 2015 and 2025 across five domains—smart city governance, labor market regulation, human capital development, workforce resilience, and data-driven public administration—complemented by a thematic review of policy documents issued by the OECD, ILO, European Commission, and World Bank. On this basis, the UWRF identifies five interdependent dimensions of urban workforce readiness: (i) digital infrastructure capacity, (ii) labor market intelligence and analytics, (iii) workforce skills adaptability, (iv) institutional governance capacity, and (v) social inclusion mechanisms. A multi-criteria operationalization is proposed, enabling comparative diagnostic assessment across cities and supporting evidence-based prioritization of policy interventions. The analysis demonstrates that institutional governance capacity and real-time labor market intelligence function as critical mediators within the system: in their absence, even substantial investments in digital infrastructure fail to produce resilient, inclusive, or sustainable labor market outcomes. Theoretically, the study extends data-driven governance scholarship beyond service delivery into the domain of workforce management, thereby integrating three traditionally separate research streams—smart city studies, labor market governance, and digital public administration—under a single analytical architecture. Practically, the UWRF provides policymakers, municipal authorities, labor market institutions, and urban planners with a structured diagnostic instrument for aligning digital transformation strategies with sustainable and equitable employment outcomes, and offers a replicable foundation for future empirical validation across diverse urban contexts. Full article

The transition toward next-generation Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication technologies has become a critical challenge in the evolution of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), particularly in countries with substantial existing C-ITS infrastructure investments. South Korea provides a representative case, having deployed WAVE-based and hybrid WAVE/LTE C-ITS infrastructure while recently adopting LTE-V2X as its future national communication platform. This study proposes a strategic decision-support framework for evaluating LTE-V2X transition strategies within an existing hybrid C-ITS infrastructure environment. Three transition strategies were evaluated using a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework based on six key performance indicators (KPIs): Compatibility, Cost Efficiency, Scalability, Deployment Readiness, Sustainability, and Future Service Interoperability. The results indicate that the Gradual LTE-V2X Transition via Hybrid Operation achieved the highest overall evaluation score by balancing infrastructure reuse, migration cost, operational continuity, and future scalability. Sensitivity analysis further showed that the preferred strategy remained stable under alternative weighting scenarios, supporting the robustness of the proposed evaluation framework. Rather than treating the WAVE–LTE-V2X issue as a purely technical comparison, this study frames it as a national infrastructure transition problem. The proposed framework provides practical guidance for policymakers and infrastructure managers seeking evidence-based and sustainable pathways for V2X communication technology transitions. Full article

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have undergone a remarkable transformation over the past two decades, evolving from a laboratory curiosity into one of the most actively investigated solvent platforms in green chemistry. Yet, despite this rapid expansion, and although the field is well served by numerous topical reviews, it still lacks a corpus-wide, cross-disciplinary synthesis capable of guiding strategic research priorities, identifying critical knowledge gaps, and informing policy and industrial investment decisions. The present work addresses this need through a thorough analysis of global DES research from 2003 to 2025, based on a deduplicated corpus of 17,757 publications retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus following PRISMA-adapted screening guidelines. The analysis maps temporal publication dynamics, geographic and institutional contributions, thematic evolution, journal landscape, component usage patterns, international collaboration networks, market projections, and alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The results document an exponential growth trajectory—from a single publication in 2004 to 3954 in 2025 (CAGR > 30%)—and reveal a clear thematic transition from early electrochemistry-dominated research toward extraction, pharmaceutical, and environmental applications, with machine-learning-assisted design and hydrophobic DES formulations emerging as the most dynamic current frontiers. China leads global output with 6819 publications (38.4%), while the United States and Malaysia achieve the highest citation-per-publication ratios among the leading nations (≈46.7 and ≈38.9, respectively, versus ≈27.6 for China), and Spain pairs a comparatively modest output with a high h-index, indicating that impact is large relative to volume. Type III DESs and NADESs collectively account for approximately 69% of the literature, with choline chloride present in 72% of reported formulations. The global DES market, valued at approximately USD 166 million in 2024, is projected to reach USD 370 million by 2030. Despite this progress, critical translational barriers persist: fewer than 0.3% of publications include techno-economic or life cycle assessment analysis, standardized characterization protocols remain absent, and toxicological datasets are systematically incomplete. This panoramic analysis is intended to serve as an evidence-based reference for researchers prioritizing future directions, for funding agencies assessing the maturity and needs of the field, and for industrial stakeholders evaluating the readiness of DES technologies for scale-up. Full article

Hydrogen is increasingly recognized as a strategic energy carrier in global decarbonization pathways, particularly for hard-to-abate sectors such as steel production, chemicals, long-distance transport, and seasonal energy storage. However, its climate benefits depend strongly on the production pathway, infrastructure development, and system-level integration. To address this complexity, this review develops a systematic quantitative comparison framework that is applied consistently across major hydrogen production pathways. Each pathway is evaluated using five criteria: carbon intensity (kg CO₂/kg H₂), Technology Readiness Level (TRL, 1–10), process efficiency (% on an LHV basis), scalability potential, and compatibility with existing infrastructure. The resulting cross-pathway matrix enables evidence-based assessment of trade-offs rather than a purely sequential description of technologies. Four broad production categories are considered: fossil-based hydrogen, fossil-based hydrogen with carbon mitigation, nuclear-derived hydrogen, and renewable-based hydrogen. The review further examines the integration of hydrogen storage, transport, and end-use applications to identify key system constraints and infrastructure bottlenecks. Emerging approaches, including digital optimization and machine learning, are also discussed for enhancing the operation and control of hydrogen systems. The analysis indicates that while low-carbon hydrogen is essential for decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors, its large-scale deployment remains constrained by technological, infrastructural, and investment-related challenges. Full article

This study examines green skills and sustainability readiness in Albania’s tourism sector using survey data from 224 tourism organizations operating across five subsectors and several regions of the country. The analysis focuses on current environmental management capabilities, future skill requirements, environmental training, and green investment. The conceptual framing combines the literature on green skills and Green Human Resource Management. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, paired-samples t-tests, independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Spearman correlations, and ordinary least squares regression were employed. The findings show that current green skills are moderate, while future skill requirements are significantly higher, indicating a substantial skills gap. The largest gaps are observed in sustainable transport promotion and climate change knowledge. Organizations providing environmental training report stronger current green skills and greater sustainability readiness than those that do not. Green investment is also positively associated with current environmental capability. In addition, significant differences emerge across tourism subsectors, while size effects appear less consistent. The regression results confirm that environmental training and green investment are important predictors of current green skills. The study contributes to the literature by extending empirical evidence on green skills to an underexplored Southeast European context and by linking green skills with sustainability readiness in tourism organizations. The findings suggest that the green transition in tourism depends not only on environmental intent but also on organizational learning and investment. Full article

This study develops a secondary-data-driven decision support framework for prioritizing strategic energy investment readiness across countries. The empirical application covers 36 countries and 18 criteria grouped under macroeconomic feasibility, institutional capacity, energy security, sustainability and decarbonization, market and demand conditions, and technical resource potential. The study responds to a methodological gap in energy investment prioritization by moving from expert-only linguistic scoring toward a reproducible, explainable, stakeholder-sensitive, and validation-oriented multi-criteria decision support structure. In the implemented empirical model, public secondary data are transformed into a normalized country-level decision matrix, baseline readiness scores are calculated using equal weights, and entropy, Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC), and hybrid entropy-CRITIC configurations are used as objective weighting benchmarks. Large language model (LLM)-assisted extraction is used as a documented criterion-discovery and screening aid, not as an autonomous scoring, weighting, or ranking mechanism. The fuzzy component is specified as an uncertainty-sensitive extension and illustrated through panel-based fuzzy interval construction for selected time-series indicators, while the main baseline ranking is based on the latest available normalized data matrix. The results show meaningful cross-country variation, with top-10 readiness scores ranging from 0.675 to 0.537 and the lowest five scores ranging from 0.364 to 0.338. Persona-based results indicate that country priorities differ across public planners, private investors, grid operators, sustainability policymakers, and infrastructure funds, while robustness checks show broad ranking stability, with Spearman correlations between 0.892 and 0.986 and a median simulated-agent correlation of 0.932. Fairness and partial-correlation diagnostics suggest that the model captures multidimensional readiness rather than simply reproducing wealth or existing renewable capacity. Post-hoc validation against observable investment- and transition-related benchmarks further supports the convergent validity of the readiness index. The framework should therefore be interpreted as an early-stage country-level screening tool for strategic energy investment prioritization, not as a final project-level investment appraisal model. Full article

Industrial energy transition has moved from pilot deployment to system integration, where renewable supply must be assessed together with process fit, organisational maturity, and uncertainty. This study proposes a risk-aware assessment framework integrating ISO 50001 energy-management maturity, ISO 31000 risk-management logic, a digital-twin-ready operational architecture, scenario simulation, Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR), and multi-criteria decision analysis. The study does not report a live plant-level digital twin or empirical survey validation. Instead, it specifies a five-layer implementation architecture, uses a synthetic survey-like dataset solely to demonstrate parameter recovery, and applies 350 Monte Carlo replications to an industrial energy hub comprising photovoltaic and wind generation, battery storage, and optional Power-to-H₂-to-Power storage. The quantitative workflow is reported with explicit equations, input assumptions, random seed, CVaR estimator, TOPSIS weights, and weight-sensitivity analysis. Under the adopted assumptions, the PV–wind–battery configuration achieved the lowest mean cost and CVaR, whereas hydrogen storage substantially reduced curtailment but increased mean cost and tail risk without materially reducing grid purchases. These results are conditional on the stated model assumptions and should not be generalised as empirical evidence. The framework supports structured investment and operational assessment by linking technical performance, organisational readiness, and cost–risk–decarbonisation trade-offs. Full article

This exploratory pilot study analyzes the organizational and environmental determinants associated with stated intention to adopt biogas-solar microgrids within a circular bioeconomy framework. A quantitative, applied, cross-sectional design was used with 71 valid individual responses from participants linked to productive, agro-industrial, livestock, energy, and waste management organizations or projects, selected through nonprobabilistic convenience sampling. The analysis does not measure actual investment, implementation, or use; therefore, the results refer only to declared adoption intention and should not be generalized beyond the sample. The questionnaire measured perceived benefits, barriers, institutional conditions, financial feasibility, environmental value, organizational capabilities, and adoption intention. Content validity was supported by expert judgment, and psychometric reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega. Predictive modeling compared supervised classification, regression, and unsupervised segmentation techniques using train-test validation, cross-validation, and interpretability analyses. ExtraTrees achieved the best exploratory classification performance, with a test ROC-AUC of 0.889, while RandomForestRegressor showed the best regression performance; however, these values should be interpreted as sample-specific evidence rather than as a validated predictive tool. Organizational capabilities and environmental criteria emerged as the most influential predictors, and K-Means suggested two tentative readiness profiles with weak separation. The findings suggest that stated adoption intention is associated with a systemic configuration of organizational maturity, environmental legitimacy, financial feasibility, and institutional support, providing preliminary evidence for future larger sample validation and for decision-support discussions in sustainable energy transitions. Full article

The rapid advancement of laboratory automation, robotics, and digital technologies has significantly transformed laboratory medicine worldwide, improving efficiency, diagnostic accuracy, and quality management. However, the adoption of these technologies in developing countries such as Indonesia remains uneven and is influenced by infrastructural, financial, regulatory, and workforce-related challenges. This structured narrative review aimed to critically examine the current landscape of laboratory automation and robotics in Indonesia, with particular emphasis on implementation challenges, workforce transformation among medical laboratory scientists (Ahli Teknologi Laboratorium Medik, ATLM), and pathways toward equitable integration. Studies published between 2015 and 2025 were identified through PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, complemented by Indonesian regulatory documents, professional guidelines, and relevant grey literature. The review was informed by PRISMA principles and synthesized narratively to explore technological developments, operational impacts, policy contexts, and implementation barriers relevant to Indonesian laboratory systems. The findings indicate that automation and robotics offer substantial benefits, including improved turnaround time, enhanced quality assurance, reduced laboratory errors, and greater operational efficiency. Nevertheless, significant barriers persist, particularly disparities in digital infrastructure, financial constraints, limited workforce readiness, and the absence of comprehensive implementation frameworks. The review further highlights that automation is reshaping rather than replacing the role of ATLM, shifting professional responsibilities toward digital competency, automation oversight, data interpretation, and quality management. Achieving sustainable laboratory automation in Indonesia therefore requires an equity-centered and systems-oriented approach involving regulatory strengthening, workforce development, infrastructure investment, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. With strategic planning and policy alignment, laboratory automation and robotics hold considerable potential to modernize laboratory services and support Indonesia’s broader healthcare transformation agenda. Full article

Purpose: Despite growing research on green fintech and sustainable finance individually, no systematic theoretical framework explains how AI-driven green fintech solutions can be adopted in banking for sustainable investment purposes. This paper addresses this demonstrated gap by developing the first bibliometrically grounded, TOE-based conceptual framework for AI-driven green fintech adoption in banking. Design/Methodology/Approach: A two-phase approach is employed. First, a bibliometric analysis of 79 Scopus-indexed documents (2020–2026) using bibliometrix in R provides quantitative evidence of the research gap through keyword co-occurrence networks, thematic mapping, and trend topic analysis. Second, building on this evidence, a conceptual framework integrating the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework with three mediating constructs, technological readiness, sustainability culture, and regulatory support is developed and five theoretical propositions are derived. Findings: The bibliometric analysis reveals an annual growth rate of 78.4% in the field and confirms that the TOE framework has never occupied the motor themes quadrant of the green fintech literature. The proposed framework theorizes three mediated pathways through which technological, organizational, and environmental conditions translate into improved sustainable investment outcomes including enhanced ESG transparency, increased green investment allocation, and SDG alignment. Practical Implications: The framework provides bank executives with three actionable intervention points: technological infrastructure investment, sustainability culture embedding, and regulatory engagement and offers policymakers evidence-based guidance for designing supportive green fintech adoption frameworks. Originality/Value: This study presents a conceptual framework that is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first to combine TOE theory, AI-driven green fintech, a banking context, an explicit three-mediator architecture (technological readiness, sustainability culture, regulatory support), and sustainable investment outcomes as the dependent variable, grounded in reproducible bibliometric evidence. Existing studies address subsets of these dimensions; none integrates all six simultaneously. Full article

The rapid digitalization of transportation systems has expanded the cyberattack surface of critical infrastructure while exposing significant shortages in transportation-specific cybersecurity workforce capacity. Existing workforce studies rarely integrate transportation-sector workforce development, organizational preparedness, operational technology (OT) challenges, and interdisciplinary collaboration within a unified analytical framework. In response to this gap, this study employs a mixed-methods approach that integrates Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) text analysis of publicly available workforce development documents, qualitative interviews with academics, policymakers, and transportation cybersecurity professionals, and organizational survey analysis to examine workforce development challenges across transportation subsectors. The findings reveal persistent information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) competency gaps, curriculum–industry misalignment, organizational staffing shortages, disparities in cybersecurity preparedness, and the critical importance of experiential learning and dedicated cybersecurity staffing. The study further emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary education, organizational capacity building, and sustained collaboration among academia, government, and industry to strengthen the transportation cybersecurity workforce’s readiness and resilience. Collectively, the findings position transportation cybersecurity workforce development as a systems-coordination challenge that requires long-term strategic investment, cross-sector collaboration, and workforce innovation to enhance the security, resilience, and operational continuity of transportation systems. Full article