Search Results (857)

Australia is committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, a goal that may require a major transformation of the household energy sector. Hydrogen can, however, be deployed as a complementary energy source to electricity by displacing natural gas. But the potential for hydrogen to make this transition is dependent on building a credible Australian household hydrogen supply chain (HHSC), which includes national distribution centres (NDCs), regional distribution centres (RDCs) and local distribution centres (LDCs). The HHSC is particularly vulnerable to operational disruptions under rapid adoption pathways and in perfect-competition market conditions, where infrastructure, supply, and pricing decisions are decentralised. Hydrogen flows may be disrupted at the NDCs and RDCs, leading to failure to meet demand and monetary losses across the HHSC. While many studies have assessed vulnerabilities within hydrogen supply chains, there is little attention paid to the consequences of distribution-level failures. This research aims to quantify the impacts associated with distribution centre (DC) disruptions in the HHSC using a multi-period network optimisation model to assess three operational situations: ideal situations, disrupted-DC situations without mitigation strategies, and disrupted-DC situations with suitable mitigation strategies. The results indicate that without mitigation strategies, demand fulfilment could potentially drop to zero, penalty costs could increase drastically, and profitability could decrease due to not meeting demand. In contrast, the implications of suitable mitigation strategies, including rerouting hydrogen through alternate, unaffected NDCs or RDCs, using spare capacity by increasing operating hours, and maintaining safety stock at RDCs, significantly increase HHSC performance. In these situations, demand fulfilment increases to up to 95%, and profitability improves substantially. This study contributes to the hydrogen supply chain literature by demonstrating how HHSCs can be planned and replanned to manage disruptions in DCs. The study also provides practical insights for policymakers and managers for a sustainable HHSC. Full article

In the context of advancing two pivotal national commitments, namely the “Dual Carbon” goals and the common prosperity strategy, energy policy formulation must move beyond purely economic or environmental considerations and adopt integrated social welfare assessments. This study develops an optimal dispatch model for a multi-microgrid system that incorporates dynamic cross subsidy and tiered carbon trading. From the perspective of welfare economics, the socioeconomic impacts of the proposed model are then systematically evaluated. First, a unified operational framework is established, combining dynamic electricity tariff cross subsidy with a tiered carbon trading mechanism. Next, a quantitative model for electricity tariff cross subsidy is proposed, and a dynamic subsidy rate linked to renewable energy output is designed to guide electricity consumption behavior. Finally, a comparative simulation is conducted across three scenarios: no subsidy, traditional cross subsidy, and the proposed dynamic cross subsidy. The results demonstrate that the proposed dynamic mechanism reduces system carbon emissions by 17.05% compared to the non-subsidy baseline while significantly optimizing total costs. Full article

Italy’s current migrant integration policies show limited effectiveness in fostering genuine social inclusion, particularly for migrant women who face compounded, intersectional discrimination. Although Italy has adopted international frameworks such as CEDAW and the Istanbul Convention, their implementation remains fragmented and weak. The absence of structured, accessible language courses and personalized integration pathways disproportionately affects migrant women, especially those confined to domestic roles or constrained by cultural barriers. The analysis highlights the Migrant and Inclusive Communities (MeCI) project as an example of a successful local initiative that used technology to enhance linguistic and social inclusion. However, its time-limited nature constrained by temporary funding and local commitment reveals broader systemic failures, including the lack of institutionalization of effective practices and excessive reliance on local actors and short-term funding. The article also stresses the importance of recognizing refugee status through a gender-sensitive lens, acknowledging forms of persecution specific to women. Overall, Italy’s integration policies are undermined by the absence of a coherent national strategy, a focus on emergency and security measures, and insufficient long-term planning. The document calls for comprehensive, rights-based, and gender-sensitive policies that prioritize empowerment, participation, and social inclusion. Full article

This paper examines the cultural and theological dimensions of Weet-Bix, an iconic Australian cereal produced by the Sanitarium Health Food Company, a department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA). It argues that Weet-Bix simultaneously embodies SDA principles of health and holiness while concealing these religious origins through secular branding. Drawing on historical and doctrinal foundations of SDA dietary reform, the study shows how Sanitarium’s commitment to plant-based nutrition reflects a theology of bodily purity and moral discipline. At the same time, marketing strategies recast these spiritual imperatives as national virtues of health, sport, and family life. Through analysis of corporate culture and a case study of the Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon, the paper explores the tension between Sanitarium’s public-facing secularity and its religious roots, revealing how SDA foodways persist beneath the surface of Australian consumer culture. This research contributes to understanding the hidden influence of religion on everyday food practices and the construction of national identity. Full article

This study addresses the environmental problems stemming from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from public transportation in the cities of Chillán and Chillán Viejo. Specifically, it analyzes emissions from fossil-fuel-powered buses, which contribute to climate change and negatively affect people’s quality of life. Given this situation, the need to reduce these emissions and move towards more sustainable mobility systems is recognized. The main objective of this research is to estimate the CO₂-equivalent reduction that could be achieved by replacing fossil-fuel-powered public transportation with electric vehicles in the aforementioned cities. To this end, the ISO 14064 methodology is used, subject to specific scope and limitations. This study reviews key aspects, including current environmental legislation, Chile’s international commitments regarding climate change, and the state of emissions in the transportation sector, to illustrate the current state of electromobility in Chile. Finally, the impact of the transition to electromobility in public passenger transport by bus is quantified, resulting in a reduction of 9429 tons of CO₂ equivalent emissions, equivalent to 63.4% compared to the 2023 bus fleet, considering the average emission factor of the national electricity system for 2023. The proposal consists of implementing a 100% electric bus public transport system, highlighting its advantages in reducing emissions, improving energy efficiency, improving air quality, and reducing noise pollution. However, this requires a significant financial investment of approximately USD 57 million, excluding public charging stations for electric buses. Furthermore, public policies offering means of accelerating the transition of public transport in Chile are analyzed. Full article

The government has established food reserves to support national food security; however, their volume varies widely across regions, and many districts still lack such reserves. The objectives of this study were to analyze the determination of volume and the problems in determining it, management performance, and propose strategies to strengthen food reserves in local governments. This study was conducted in West Java Province in 2022, using primary and secondary data from the study area. Primary data were collected through FGDs with farmer groups and stakeholders from central and regional agencies, and secondary data consisted of food reserve statistics and secondary literature. Quantitative analysis using mathematical equations in accordance with food reserve calculation regulations was used to calculate the potential food reserve production and ideal reserve volume, while qualitative descriptive analysis obtained from the field was used to clarify the results of the analysis. The main findings of this study are as follows. (1) The determination of local government food reserves is regulated by regional policy, with the volume increasing from 23% in 2018 to 187% in 2022 of the ideal volume in West Java; (2) the potential for rice-based food reserves can be expanded in line with regional production capacity, although there are still obstacles, including limited budgets and a lack of commitment from local governments in determining optimal reserve volumes; (3) strengthening regional food reserves must be complemented by the development of community-based reserves; and (4) improving management performance requires supporting regional government policies to ensure sustainable food reserves, adequate warehousing infrastructure, efficient distribution facilities, and effective distribution mechanisms through collaboration with logistics institutions. This study suggests policy recommendations to implement a multi-year cooperation contract with the Logistics Affairs Agency covering procurement, storage, and distribution to expand reserve volumes and improve management effectiveness. Full article

This study explores the reasons why, despite ambitious national strategies, the deployment of renewable energy in Arab countries has persistently lagged behind global trends. It investigates the drivers of this disparity by analyzing the impact of fiscal capacity, energy market size, and energy dependence on renewable energy development. To control for country heterogeneity, this paper divides Arab countries into three groups based on their degree of energy dependence: energy-importing countries, energy-exporting countries, and energy trade reversal countries. Using a panel dataset of 17 Arab countries from 1990 to 2022, this study employs a dynamic common correlated effects (DCCE) estimator, which uniquely accounts for cross-sectional dependence and distinguishes between short-run dynamics and long-run equilibrium. The results reveal three key findings. First, in energy-importing and energy trade reversal countries, improvements in government fiscal balance significantly promote renewable energy development. Second, higher energy consumption exerts a persistent negative effect on renewable energy development, suggesting that demand expansion reinforces carbon lock-in rather than facilitating transition. Third, energy dependence exhibits a temporal asymmetry: it hinders renewable deployment in the short run, but becomes a strong positive driver in the long run, reflecting a shift from immediate supply security to strategic energy security. However, for energy-exporting countries, those drivers are statistically insignificant, highlighting strong path dependence. These findings partly validate the “developmental state”, “carbon lock-in”, and “energy security” theories within the Arab context. The study concludes that fiscal buffers and the pursuit of energy security facilitate the deployment of renewable energy in specific country contexts, while growth in energy consumption reinforces carbon lock-in. These findings contribute to SDG 7 and SDG 13, with particular relevance to Arab countries grappling with the dual challenges of economic diversification and the climate commitments outlined in the Paris Agreement. Full article

Brazilian women’s migration to Portugal has increased in recent years, driven by hopes of safety, improved living conditions, and professional opportunities. Yet these aspirations frequently collide with structural barriers and experiences of discrimination that generate profound psychological distress. Drawing on intersectional feminist epistemology and social constructionism, this qualitative study examines how social markers of difference—gender, class, race, and nationality—intersect to shape the psychological well-being of Brazilian immigrant women in Portugal. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen women who sought psychological support after migration. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed three interrelated themes: the migration journey, exposing the gap between idealised expectations and the realities of bureaucracy, precarity, and exclusion; inhabiting a new territory, marked by social isolation, racism, xenophobia, and professional devaluation; and the mental-health impacts of migration, showing how structural vulnerabilities and institutional racism underpin depression, anxiety, and, in some cases, suicidal ideation. The findings challenge the individualisation of suffering, showing that psychological distress stems not from personal fragility but from systems of exclusion and enduring colonial legacies. This study underscores the need for culturally responsive and rights-based mental health care and public policies that recognise migration as a human experience demanding dignity, ethical commitment, and social justice. Full article

The teaching profession increasingly demands complex competencies, including collaboration, professional networking, and adaptability, beyond subject-specific knowledge, due to rapid educational, technological, and labor market changes. This study addresses the limited national data on the professional relational capital of teacher education students and examines how relational networks affect professional identity, commitment, and retention. A pilot questionnaire was developed from focus group interviews conducted in spring 2024 at the University of Nyíregyháza and analyzed with ATLAS.ti 7. The instrument includes four dimensions: parental influence, initiative during high school, initiative during university, and future employment plans, with indicators such as place of residence, cooperation patterns, network durability, domestic and international collaborations, and professional aspirations. Results indicate that students’ relational networks are central to early professional socialization and engagement in collaborative teaching communities. Mapping these networks offers diagnostic and developmental insights, supporting targeted mentoring, inter-institutional cooperation, and international mobility. Findings suggest that deliberately developing relational capital during teacher training enhances professional preparedness, satisfaction, and retention. Overall, the study highlights the value of integrating professional networking and collaborative competencies into teacher education to promote sustainable career paths, align training with labor market expectations, and strengthen the quality, resilience, and long-term sustainability of the teaching workforce. Full article

Sustainable corporate governance plays an essential role in promoting responsible economic growth and enhancing social and environmental well-being in emerging economies. In this context, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance has become an important indicator of a firm’s commitment to sustainable development and its alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 8 and SDG 12. This study investigates the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance on the financial sustainability of publicly listed companies in Thailand, a rapidly developing Southeast Asian economy where empirical evidence remains limited. Using an unbalanced panel dataset of 965 firm-year observations across multiple industries, multiple regression models were employed to assess the influence of ESG performance on two financial indicators: return on capital employed and return on assets. Granger causality tests were also conducted to explore directional relationships between sustainability performance and financial outcomes. The empirical results reveal a significant negative short-term association between ESG performance and return on assets (ROA), whereas the relationship with return on capital employed (ROCE) is statistically insignificant. The causality analysis indicates that ESG performance Granger-causes ROA, implying that sustainability-driven strategic decisions may precede and influence financial outcomes over time. Additionally, leverage emerges as a key constraint to financial sustainability, negatively affecting both ROCE and ROA. These findings underscore the challenge of striking a balance between sustainability investments and immediate profitability in emerging markets. Policymakers and business leaders are encouraged to promote supportive governance frameworks, reduce financial barriers, and foster ESG-driven practices that contribute to long-term sustainable competitiveness and inclusive development. Full article

In the context of China’s “dual-carbon” strategy, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics provides a critical case for examining whether carbon-neutral commitments can be translated into measurable and lasting environmental outcomes through a closed-loop governance mechanism. This study develops an integrated analytical framework linking institutional design, policy tools, monitoring–reporting–verification (MRV), and environmental legacy, and evaluates full life-cycle carbon-neutral governance and post-event environmental performance using officially verified carbon accounting materials, governmental disclosures, and publicly available statistical data from 2016–2022. We synthesize the emission structure across preparation and Games-time phases, examine key mitigation and offset portfolios, and assess multi-dimensional environmental indicators in Beijing and Zhangjiakou, including atmospheric quality, energy structure transition, ecological restoration, and low-carbon transport systems. The results suggest that an MRV-centered governance chain strengthened accounting transparency and compliance-oriented implementation, while environmental indicators in the competition zones exhibited sustained improvement over the study period. To reduce over-attribution under concurrent national clean-air policies and macro-level environmental governance trends, we benchmarked host-zone indicators against external reference statistics and interpret the observed improvements as an “acceleration effect” under bounded inference rather than a strict net causal contribution. The findings highlight the importance of hotspot-oriented asset-chain governance (transport infrastructure and venue construction), robust MRV disclosure, and quality-controlled offsets in shaping credible environmental legacies, and provide policy implications for future mega-events seeking to balance carbon neutrality with long-term regional sustainability. Full article

Low-voltage mini-grids play a crucial role in expanding electricity access for rural and remote communities. However, they continue to face technical and operational barriers that hinder their performance and reliability. This study reviewed the evolution of research on technical challenges in low-voltage mini-grids from 2005 to 2025. Using the PRISMA approach, data were extracted from the Scopus database, yielding 155 publications for bibliometric analysis. Bibliometrix in R Studio was used to examine publication trends, geographical contributions, and thematic evolution, while qualitative synthesis identified key engineering and operational constraints. The findings revealed a steady increase in research outputs since 2020, driven by global policy commitments, including Sustainable Development Goal 7 and the Paris Agreement. Persistent technical barriers include voltage and frequency instability, inadequate power quality monitoring, inefficient integration of energy storage, poor control coordination, and limited system design optimisation. African nations contribute less to global research despite being most affected by energy poverty, highlighting capacity and funding gaps. The study highlights the need for integrated solutions combining smart control, hybrid storage, and grid-interconnection technologies to enhance resilience and reliability. For policymakers and practitioners, the findings advocate for investment in research, capacity building, and locally tailored technical standards designed for resource-constrained contexts. This review provides a comprehensive evidence base to guide future research and policy directions aimed at achieving sustainable, technically robust, and financially viable mini-grid systems for universal energy access. Full article

Emerging hospitality markets confront a two-speed ecosystem where operational digitalization outpaces strategic AI readiness, creating a benefit–feasibility gap. Providers recognize substantial technology value yet face implementation constraints from costs, integration complexity, and skills shortages, while guests demonstrate acceptance conditional on trust, with privacy concerns suppressing willingness to pay. Drawing on dual-perspective empirical evidence from Albania’s accommodation sector consisting of a national provider readiness assessment (N = 1821) and a guest acceptance study (N = 689) conducted in prior research, this Design Science Research study develops a segment-differentiated technological blueprint through systematic integration of Design Thinking, service blueprinting, and systems thinking methodologies. Integrated TAM-TOE-DOI framework analysis reveals three distinct provider segments requiring differentiated implementation pathways: Tech Leaders positioned for AI capabilities, Selective Adopters benefiting from smart modules, and Skeptics requiring foundational capabilities. Empirical evidence establishes that regional ecosystem characteristics outweigh organizational scale in determining adoption feasibility, trust operates as a gating condition moderating acceptance and financial commitment, and supply–demand misalignment creates bottlenecks invisible to single-perspective assessments. Theoretical contributions extend TAM-TOE-DOI frameworks from explanatory constructs to design requirements, conceptualize supply–demand alignment as an adoption mechanism, and generate two generalizable design principles: dual-constraint satisfaction requiring simultaneous provider feasibility and guest acceptance, and trust-as-architecture embedding trust mechanisms as structural properties. The proposed segment-differentiated technological blueprint offers actionable implementation pathways aligned with varying levels of provider readiness, providing transferable guidance for policymakers, technology vendors, education providers, and accommodation providers across the Western Balkans, the Mediterranean, and other post-transition economies facing similar heterogeneity in readiness and resource constraints. Full article

Rising geopolitical risks have become a defining feature of the global business environment, yet how firms—particularly those from latecomer economies—adjust their innovation strategies under such conditions remains insufficiently understood. Integrating resource dependence theory with the innovation ecosystem perspective, we propose that geopolitical risk induce firms to engage in cross-industry innovation as a strategic response to mitigate their reliance on international technological ecosystems, which traditionally provide cross-industry complementarities but are increasingly subject to disruption. Analyzing a panel of 12,354 Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2012 to 2022, and employing fixed-effects negative binomial regression models implemented in Stata 18, we find that firms exposed to higher levels of perceived geopolitical risk are more likely to pursue innovations beyond their industry’s technological boundaries in subsequent years. This effect is weakened by industry technological complexity but strengthened by the firm’s nationalism, reflecting both reactive responses to external uncertainty and proactive efforts toward technological self-reliance. Our study contributes to innovation research by revealing how geopolitical forces reshape firms’ innovation trajectories and by extending resource dependence theory to the context of ecosystem-based interdependence. From a policy perspective, governments can promote rational and constructive nationalist narratives that encourage firms to commit to innovation in strategically vulnerable technologies. Full article

Ningbo (NGB), a major port city on China’s east coast, is defined by a network of over 100 rivers across three major catchments. From the 1970s to the 2000s, extensive engineering, including channelisation and embankment construction, was used to manage flood risk during rapid urbanisation. Since the 2010s, however, the city has shifted towards smart flood management. The Ningbo government and Water Bureau have deployed digital twins and technologies like 3D flood mapping and real-time monitoring, significantly improving precision. Our study demonstrated that this smart technology performed effectively during recent extreme events, namely typhoons In-Fa (2021) and Muifa (2022), helping the Municipal Bureau to safeguard public safety. This success strengthens municipal and national commitments to climate resilience. Nevertheless, further advancement of the digital twin platform is required. Key priorities include boosting computational capacity, improving cross-departmental coordination, establishing open data sharing, and integrating artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance decision-making during future climate extremes. Full article