Search Results (144)

The development of energy systems toward a decarbonized economy is increasingly constrained not only by technological challenges, but also by deficiencies in the organization, coordination, and governability of sustainable financing. This study aims to substantiate an integrated conceptual model and a multi-level governance framework for the sustainable financing mechanism of energy system development under decarbonization, ensuring the alignment of financial instruments with transition strategies, performance indicators, and feedback mechanisms. The methodology combines a bibliometric analysis of Scopus-indexed journal publications with an examination of international statistical and analytical data produced by leading global organizations, complemented by systemic, institutional, and comparative analytical approaches. The bibliometric analysis was conducted in 2025 and covered peer-reviewed articles published during 2017–2025, while empirical financial indicators were synthesized for the most recent available period of 2022–2024 using comparable time-series data reported by international institutions. The results indicate that despite global energy investments reaching approximately $3 trillion in 2024—nearly $2 trillion of which was allocated to clean energy technologies—a persistent annual financing gap for climate change mitigation in the energy sector remains. Moreover, to remain consistent with the Net Zero trajectory, investments in clean energy must increase by approximately 1.7 times by 2030. The synthesis of contemporary research and empirical evidence reveals a predominance of studies focused on individual green and transition finance instruments, accompanied by persistent fragmentation between financial flows, governance structures, and measurable decarbonization outcomes. To address this gap, the paper proposes a conceptual model that interprets sustainable finance as a governed system rather than a collection of isolated instruments, together with a multi-level governance framework integrating strategic (policy), sectoral, and project-level decision-making with systems of key performance indicators, monitoring, and feedback. The findings demonstrate that the effectiveness of sustainable financing critically depends on the coherence between financial instruments, governance architectures, and decarbonization objectives, which ultimately determines the capacity to translate mobilized capital into tangible energy infrastructure modernization and measurable emissions reductions. The proposed approach provides a practical foundation for improving energy transition policies and investment strategies at both national and supranational levels. Full article

Background/Objectives: Telemedicine has emerged as a pivotal approach to improving access to diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening, diagnosis, management, and monitoring. Over the past two decades, rapid advancements in digital imaging, mobile health technologies, and artificial intelligence have substantially expanded the role of teleophthalmology in DR, resulting in a large volume of pertinent publications. This study aimed to provide a scientific overview of telemedicine applied to DR through bibliometric analysis. Methods: A search of the Web of Science Core Collection was conducted on 15 November 2025 to identify English-language original research and review articles regarding telemedicine for DR. Bibliographic data from relevant publications were extracted and underwent quantitative analysis and visualization using the tools Bibliometrix and VOSviewer. Results: A total of 515 articles published between 1998 and 2025 were included in our analysis. During this period, the research field of telemedicine for DR exhibited an annual growth rate of 13.14%, with publication activity markedly increasing after 2010 and peaking in 2020–2021. Based on the number of publications, United States, China, and Australia were the most productive countries, while Telemedicine and e-Health, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, and British Journal of Ophthalmology were the most relevant journals in the field. Keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed three major thematic clusters within the broader topic of telemedicine and DR, namely, public health-oriented work, telehealth service models, and applications of artificial intelligence technologies. Conclusions: The role of telemedicine in DR detection and care represents an expanding multidisciplinary field of research supported by contributions from multiple authors and institutions worldwide. As technological capabilities continue to evolve, ongoing innovation and cross-domain collaboration could further advance the applications of teleophthalmology for DR, promoting more accessible, efficient, and equitable identification and management of this condition. Full article

Efficient metadata and page management are essential for sustaining database performance on modern flash-based storage. However, conventional SQLite configurations—rollback journal and WAL—often trigger excessive small writes and frequent synchronization events, leading to high write amplification and degraded tail latency, particularly on UFS and NVMe devices. This study introduces ALEX (Adaptive Log-Embedded Extent Layer), a lightweight VFS-level extension that coalesces scattered 4 KB page updates into sequential, page-aligned extents while embedding compact log records for recovery. The proposed design reduces redundant writes through in-memory page deduplication, minimizes fdatasync()frequency by flushing multi-page extents, and preserves full SQLite compatibility. We evaluate ALEX on both Linux NVMe SSDs and Android UFS storage under controlled workloads. Results show that ALEX significantly lowers write amplification, reduces sync counts, and improves p95–p99 write latency compared with baseline SQLite modes. The approach consistently achieves near-sequential write patterns without modifying SQLite internals. These findings demonstrate that lightweight extent-based coalescing can provide substantial efficiency gains for embedded and mobile database systems, offering a practical direction for enhancing SQLite performance on flash devices. Full article

Background: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into mobile health (mHealth) applications has been accelerated by the widespread adoption of smartphones and recent technological advances, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This experience has expanded the role of AI-powered apps in real-time health monitoring, early detection, and personalized treatment pathways. Aim: This review aims to summarize recent evidence on the use of AI in healthcare-related mobile applications, with a focus on clinical trends, practical implications, and future directions. Methods: Studies were prioritized based on methodological rigor, with systematic reviews forming the core of the analysis. Additional literature was considered to capture emerging trends and applications where a relevant rigorous screening and scoring procedure was applied to ensure methodological quality and relevance. Only studies addressing healthcare applications, rather than computational or computer science frameworks, were included to reflect the journal’s clinical scope. Results and Discussion: Fifty-six secondary studies were analyzed in detail. Thematic synthesis revealed a post-pandemic shift toward applications targeting mental health, chronic care management, and preventive services. Additional screening showed that, despite their increasing use in clinical contexts, few AI-based apps were formally classified as medical devices. This highlights a gap between technological innovation and regulatory oversight. Ethical concerns—including algorithm transparency, clinical responsibility, and data protection—were frequently reported across studies. Conclusions: This review underscores the growing impact of AI in mobile health, while drawing attention to unresolved challenges related to regulation, safety, and clinical accountability. A more robust integration into health systems will require clearer governance frameworks, validation standards, and interdisciplinary dialogue between developers, clinicians, and regulators. Full article

Citizen journalism is gaining increasing popularity as a means of distributing information using digital technology. As technology continues to improve, particularly in the realms of social media and mobile technology, direct involvement and creation of content are becoming more accessible to individual users. Digital media platforms promote and facilitate public engagement in processes of decision-making. They enhance the dissemination of information, promote transparency, and ensure accountability. The aim of this research is to elucidate the impact of digital technologies on user engagement in citizen journalism. This research also identifies pull factors that inspire individuals to engage in user-generated content creation and promotion. A qualitative approach was used to understand the motivation for citizens to practice journalism. Purposive sampling was used to select the samples. Young citizen journalists, media professionals, and citizen journalism platform coordinators were interviewed. KII (Key Informant Interviews) and IDI (In-Depth Interviews) were conducted using unstructured questionnaires to collect qualitative data, which were analyzed thematically. The results of this study show that the involvement of citizens in journalism has increased due to the emergence of the internet, digital platforms, and mobile technologies. Full article

The increasing inclusion of robots in social areas requires continuous improvement of behavioral strategies that robots must follow. Although behavioral strategies mainly focus on operational efficiency, other aspects should be considered to provide a reliable interaction in terms of sociability (e.g., methods for detection and interpretation of human behaviors, how and where human–robot interaction is performed, and participant evaluation of robot behavior). This scoping review aims to answer seven research questions related to robotic motion in socially aware navigation, considering some aspects such as: type of robots used, characteristics, and type of sensors used to detect human behavioral cues, type of environment, and situations. Articles were collected on the ACM Digital Library, Emerald Insight, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, MDPI, and SpringerLink databases. The PRISMA-ScR protocol was used to conduct the searches. Selected articles met the following inclusion criteria. They: (1) were published between January 2018 and August 2025, (2) were written in English, (3) were published in journals or conference proceedings, (4) focused on social robots, (5) addressed Socially Aware Navigation (SAN), and (6) involved the participation of volunteers in experiments. As a result, 22 studies were included; 77.27% of them employed mobile wheeled robots. Platforms using differential and omnidirectional drive systems were each used in 36.36% of the articles. 50% of the studies used a functional robot appearance, in contrast to bio-inspired appearances used in 31.80% of the cases. Among the frequency of sensors used to collect data from participants, vision-based technologies were the most used (with monocular cameras and 3D-vision systems each reported in 7 articles). Processing was mainly performed on board (50%) of the robot. A total of 59.1% of the studies were performed in real-world environments rather than simulations (36.36%), and a few studies were performed in hybrid environments (4.54%). Robot interactive behaviors were identified in different experiments: physical behaviors were present in all experiments. A few studies employed visual behaviors (2 times). In just over half of the studies (13 studies), participants were asked to provide post-experiment feedback. Full article

This systematic review examines mathematics teachers’ knowledge for teaching using digital technologies (DTs), understood as the intersection of disciplinary, pedagogical, and technological domains that teachers mobilize when designing, implementing, and assessing mathematics lessons. In this study, DTs refer to the digital hardware, software, and online environments used to represent, simulate, or analyze mathematical ideas (e.g., GeoGebra, Tinkerplots, spreadsheets, CAS tools, and learning management systems). We analyzed 50 peer-reviewed journal articles published between January 2010 and April 2025, retrieved from Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC, and Scielo. ResearchGate was consulted only as a supplementary repository to access the full texts already identified in the indexed databases. These articles were analyzed according to predefined analytical categories, including research themes, country of origin, and the digital technologies addressed in each study, allowing for cross-comparisons across theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches. The results reveal a strong interest in this topic in countries such as Turkey, the United States, Mexico, Indonesia, and Spain, with the participation of in-service mathematics teachers at the primary, secondary, and university levels, as well as preservice teachers. The most frequently studied themes in the past five years regarding teacher knowledge include teacher education through digital technologies, the analysis of lesson planning and tasks designed by teachers using DTs, and the assessment of their knowledge through self-perception questionnaires. The review concludes that only a few of the analyzed studies qualitatively examined teacher knowledge when using digital technologies, particularly those that employed non-participant observation, audio and/or video recordings, and semi-structured interviews. Full article

This study examines the current Digital Transformation (DT) knowledge in higher education, focusing on mobile app usage among Generation I. It examines publication trends, influential works, intellectual structures, keyword trends, and network visualizations to provide a foundation for future research and practice. This study used bibliometric analysis to examine articles from the Scopus database published from 2014 to 2024. Using the PRISMA method, the authors identified the articles and bibliographic information in the database and utilized VOS viewer to produce mapping and graphical presentations. This study presents how DT in higher education through mobile apps has evolved between 2014 and 2024. Studies on DT in higher education saw an 86% increase in 2020, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The top journals, influential authors, and affiliated countries are identified. The United States leads in contributions to this field with 35 publications, accounting for 19% of the total, followed by China and the UK, which account for 9% and 7%, respectively. Several key research gaps are identified based on existing literature, and suggestions are made for future studies. By examining current and influential trends, this study contributes to the knowledge of digital transformation in higher education and offers insights for institutions seeking to enhance mobile-based support services. Full article

Although our society is becoming increasingly reliant on technology, clinical practice has not yet harnessed digital technology to address the widest audience possible to prevent and treat a range of mental health concerns. The present study aimed to contribute to the literature by exploring the usability, feasibility, and engagement in In the Mirror: Functional Appreciated Bodies (IM FAB), an easily disseminable micro-intervention aimed at reducing body image dissatisfaction and eating disorder risk, piloted in a sample of undergraduate women. We evaluated the usability of the intervention’s procedures and prompts, the feasibility of using the IM FAB program as a smartphone app, and participant engagement to best understand how the participants’ experiences can inform future digital mental health intervention development using the same treatment techniques. Two hundred undergraduate women completed three weeks of mirror exposure sessions and received randomly scheduled text-based journaling prompts in the intervening two weeks. They completed a post-experiment questionnaire, which included the Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX) scale, app-based feasibility questions, and engagement questions. Usability, feasibility, and engagement scores were high. Participants were generally positive, but with some mixed feedback about transitioning IM FAB to a digital mental health format, noting concerns about accountability and engagement if it was self-directed. Participants generally reported that the text journaling supported what they learned during mirror exposures. These insights can guide the future piloting of the IM FAB program as a mobile app with individualized features. Full article

Impact investing and sustainable finance are crucial in addressing social and environmental issues while developing a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable world. The purpose of this article is to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the existing literature on the impact investing and sustainable finance research domain. Using PRISMA protocol, data was extracted from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, resulting in the compilation of 498 documents. Researchers use Biblioshiny and VOSviewer to analyze the bibliographic meta data. The findings show that the number of publications in this field has increased significantly over the last five years. In terms of journal productivity, Sustainability is the most prominent source, followed by Resources Policy and Journal of Cleaner Production. The results indicate that China published 189 articles, securing the first position, followed by India with 82 articles and the UK with 72 articles. Thematic map analysis underscores the significance of impact investing in renewable energy for sustainable economic growth. In addition, four research themes have emerged from the co-occurrence of keywords analysis. These themes are “sustainable finance for sustainable economic development”; “the rise of ESG investing in the changing world”; “corporate governance and CSR in enhancing firm performance”; and “mobilizing sustainable finance to tackle climate changes”. Furthermore, the research gives a complete summary of current research trends, future research directions and policy recommendations to assist academic researchers, investors, policymakers, business organizations and financial institutions in better understanding the impact investment and sustainable finance. Full article

Bridges play an increasingly indispensable role in endorsing the economic and social development of societies by linking highways and facilitating the mobility of people and goods. Concurrently, they are susceptible to high traffic volumes and an intricate service environment over their lifespans, resulting in undergoing a progressive deterioration process. Hence, efficient measures of maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation planning are critical to boost the performance condition, safety, and structural integrity of bridges while evading less costly interventions. To this end, this research paper furnishes a mixed review method, comprising systematic literature and scientometric reviews, for the meticulous examination and analysis of the existing research work in relation with maintenance fund allocation models of bridges (BriMai_all). With that in mind, Scopus and Web of Science databases are harnessed collectively to retrieve peer-reviewed journal articles on the subject, culminating in 380 indexed journal articles over the study period (1990–2025). In this respect, VOSviewer and Bibliometrix R package are utilized to create a visualization network of the literature database, covering keyword co-occurrence analysis, country co-authorship analysis, institution co-authorship analysis, journal co-citation analysis, journal co-citation, core journal analysis, and temporal trends. Subsequently, a rigorous systematic literature review is rendered to synthesize the adopted tools and prominent trends of the relevant state of the art. Particularly, the conducted multi-dimensional review examines the six dominant methodical paradigms of bridge maintenance management: (1) multi-criteria decision making, (2) life cycle assessment, (3) digital twins, (4) inspection planning, (5) artificial intelligence, and (6) optimization. It can be argued that this research paper could assist asset managers with a practical guide and a protocol to plan maintenance expenditures and implement sustainable practices for bridges under deterioration. Full article

Electric mobility is emerging as a crucial solution to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and mitigate environmental impact. In Ecuador, the transportation sector significantly contributes to CO₂ emissions. However, the transition to electric vehicles faces several challenges, including high initial costs, insufficient charging infrastructure, and limited battery range. This highlights the need for effective public policies and local economic incentives. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of electric mobility in Andean regions, with a particular focus on Ecuador. It employs a systematic literature review (SLR) adapted from Kitchenham’s methodology, incorporating a multicriteria hierarchical analysis to rank journals according to their relevance. The goal is to assess the growth, implementation, and limitations of electric mobility in Andean countries. Three key research questions are addressed: (i) What are the benefits associated with the transition to electric transportation in Andean countries, with a special focus on Ecuador? (ii) What are the current challenges in transitioning to electric mobility? (iii) What recent public policies are promoting electric transportation? The analysis reveals that the transition to electric mobility could significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, it faces notable challenges due to the insufficient demand for studies in electromobility plans and methodologies for defining charging points. The SLR includes a review of over 90 articles published in high-impact journals over the past six years, providing a solid foundation for decision-making in the current landscape and suggesting strategies to overcome the obstacles faced by government institutions. Finally, the study presents the reality of an installed charging infrastructure in Ecuador and the development of electric mobility in the region. Full article

The effectiveness of upper extremity rehabilitation in post-stroke patients significantly depends on patient motivation and adherence to therapeutic regimens. Rehabilitation-assistive technologies, including wearable sensors, have been adopted to facilitate intensive and repetitive exercises aimed at reducing hand dysfunction and enhancing quality of life. Building upon the previously introduced Przypominajka (reminder) system reported in this journal—a wearable sensory glove coupled with a mobile application providing exercise guidance and monitoring—we conducted a feasibility study to evaluate its effectiveness in supporting upper limb rehabilitation. Sixteen post-stroke patients with hemiparesis were equally randomized into experimental and control groups. Both groups performed upper limb exercises for 45 min daily for over two weeks. The experimental group utilized the sensor-equipped glove and tablet-based exercises, whereas the control group followed printed exercise instructions. Clinical improvements were measured using the Fugl–Meyer Assessment–Upper Extremity (FMA-UE), Functional Independence Measure (FIM), and MORE scales. The experimental group demonstrated a minimal clinically important difference (MCID) on the FMA-UE and reported greater overall improvement than the control group. This study confirms the feasibility and potential clinical benefit of supplementing post-stroke rehabilitation with sensor-augmented exercises provided by the previously described Przypominajka device. Full article