The striving for sustainable development has become the goal of actions undertaken not only by representatives of public authorities and institutions representing this sector, but also representatives of private entities who are increasingly recognizing the benefits and sources of long-term development based on the principles and objectives of sustainable development. These are mainly based on the pursuit of synergy in the three basic areas of activities, i.e., in the economic, social, and environmental dimensions as well as in the maintenance of natural resources. The implementation of these activities is connected with the necessity of incurring financial expenditures, which the government (public sector) does not have in the required value. Therefore, in the process of sustainable development for which the government is responsible, the active participation of the financial sector (banks) is necessary. Achieving results within the alliance of the concept of sustainable development requires the setting of a kind of contract, the parties of which are the government, society, and financial institutions. The purpose of the conducted research is to indicate by which means the government can stimulate economic growth towards its sustainable development.

Abstract: For decades, researchers have suggested the existence of a bilingual cognitive advantage, especially in tasks involving executive functions such as inhibition, shifting, and updating. Recently, an increasing number of studies have questioned whether bilingualism results in change in executive functions, highlighting conflicting data published in the literature. The present study compared the performance of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade bilingual and monolingual children on attentional and cognitive tasks. Participants were 61 monolingual and 74 bilingual children (M = 114.6 months; SD = 8.48 months) who were tested on two versions of the Attention Network Task (ANT), with and without social stimuli, as well as tests investigating working memory, short-term memory, narrative memory, and receptive vocabulary. Data on families’ socioeconomic status and children’s reasoning abilities were also collected. The results showed that bilingualism and socioeconomic status affected attentional networks in tasks involving social stimuli. In tasks involving non-social stimuli, socioeconomic status only affected the alerting and executive conflict networks. Consistent with the literature, a positive relationship emerged between socioeconomic status and executive control in the context of social stimuli, and a negative relationship emerged between socioeconomic status and the alerting network in the context of non-social stimuli. Interestingly, neither socioeconomic status nor social attentional networks correlated with working memory. Therefore, although more investigations are required, the results suggest that differences in social contexts mainly affect attentional functions.

“Sustainable development” (SD) is a term that has gained prominence in the international dia-logue around development. Many, however, continue to misunderstand the concept, its principles, its development, and its operationalization. The wide variety of definitions and interpretations of SD lean toward institutional and social prerogatives rather than unifying the essence of the con-cept, which is rooted in conventional ideas and values. By delving deeper into the paradigm, its history, and its potential, this research sought to contribute to ongoing discussions about sus-tainable development. The literature was thoroughly analyzed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020. This historical and conceptual analysis sought to update the body of knowledge on sustainability and sustainable development by examining the metaphorical and epistemological underpinnings of SD’s various definitions, evolutions, and principles. The research concludes and argues that intergenerational justice, based on the environment, economy, and society, is the central tenet of the entire sustainable develop-ment argument. The focus and consideration of interested parties are moving from the protection of the environment to social sustainability. The future of SD is likely to continue to focus much more on the social pillar and integrate digitalization in implementing the SD concept, especially in the fourth industrial revolution. To promote ethical human behavior and activities worldwide, at national and local levels, decision-makers must be continuously cognizant of the interdepend-encies, direct interactions, and balance between the three core constructs of SD.

Lead optimization in drug discovery is a crucial phase where initial hits are refined into compounds with improved pharmacological properties. While traditional methods rely on manual experimentation and modifications, AI-driven techniques have revolutionized this process by leveraging big data and predictive modeling. This review explores how AI-driven approaches accelerate lead optimization, showcasing examples like deep neural networks and reinforcement learning. Integration of multi-omic data and experimental validation further enhances AI-driven strategies. The future lies in refining these AI methods, democratizing tools, and interdisciplinary collaboration to streamline drug discovery and address medical needs efficiently.

Education is expected to support the development of a more sustainable way of thinking, working, and living. Although there is a broad range of literature on Education for Sustainable development (ESD), the role of principals in the implementation of sustainability and ESD in schools has rarely been taken into consideration. However, based on the results of school effectiveness research, one can assume that school principals exert a significant influence on ESD. Sustainability is a leadership issue. When a school aims at integrating sustainability and ESD, the principal plays a pivotal role. She or he has to support the endeavor wholeheartedly and credibly, organize a participative process of school development, push ahead sustainability and ESD in the daily life of the school, support teaching staff in the application of ESD, involve students and offer them opportunities to launch their own initiatives. This article seeks to support principals in leading their schools towards sustainability. Four stages of the integration of Sustainability and ESD in a school are defined. For each of these stages, a number of actions and management strategies are suggested and explained in detail.

The outermost layer of the heart, the epicardium, is an essential cell population that contributes, through epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), to form different cell types and provide paracrine signals to the developing heart. Despite its quiescent state during adulthood, in response to cardiac injury, adult epicardium reactivates and recapitulates many aspects of embryonic cardiogenesis supporting cardiac tissue remodeling. Thus, the epicardium has been considered as a crucial source of cell progenitors with important contribution to developing and injured heart. Although several studies have provided evidence about cell fate determination in the epicardium, to date it is unclear whether epicardial-derived cells (EPDCs) come from specific, and previously predetermined, epicardial cell subpopulations or if they are derived from a common progenitor. In recent years, different approaches have been used to study cell heterogeneity within the epicardial layer by using different experimental models. However, generated data are still insufficient to understand the complexity of this epithelial layer. In this review, we summarize the previous works supporting the cellular composition, molecular signatures and diversity within the developing and adult epicardium.

This article aims to examine the concept of historical thinking by looking at the development of historical learning from colonialism to reformation, as well as some examples of innovations in history learning through technology media. The development of history learning in Indonesia has a long story from the colonialism era to the reformation that changed from time to time. However, changes and reforms in the education system do not make students more interested in history. The 21st century, known as the digital century, makes students' attention more focused on the present and the development of the times. Therefore, there are many innovations that are in line with technological media to support and maintain history learning in this era. The question from this research is how is history learning not favored by students when technological innovations to support this learning have developed? By using the literature review method and a qualitative approach, this article provides a new perspective through existing data. Because innovation cannot run effectively before it is accompanied by historical thinking, so the results of the research are historical thinking must be instilled from the start to support innovations that develop and attract students' interest. Based on the study, it is recommended that have historical thinking to further optimize technology develops innovation more effectively and ask for more interest in history. Keywords: 21st Century, Historical Development, Paradigm

Land and property development process include a series of multifaceted activities ranging from purchasing to converting it for development purposes and everything in between. The process itself encompasses multiple stakeholders, drivers, and contributions from diversified public and private actors and transaction cost arises out of their complex interaction. Transaction costs incurred during any kind of human interactions (i.e. transactions). Every actor involved in the process wishes to maximize his achievement under various constraints and hence institutional arrangement (i.e. set of humanly devised rules to administer the constraints) is necessary for efficient management of the development process. Therefore, to devise an optimum outcome out of economic and social transactions in the property development process, cooperative and competitive relationships between individuals should be understood from a broader socio-political and governance structure. In this research, it is critically argued that land and property development process should implicate a multifaceted set of formal and informal rules or institutional arrangement to govern the intrinsic interaction, action and thereby reducing the related transaction cost. The argument is further reproachfully evaluated and implicated in the urban development process through the myopic lens of Transit-oriented development (TOD) pathway. A vigilant combination of descriptive and explanatory research approach is adopted to analyze the connection between theory and practice.

Background: As a result of the pandemic, families and children have faced physical, emotional, and mental challenges. However, there has been little attention given to the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and child development. This systematic review aims to identify the impact of the pandemic on child development, globally. Methods: This study follows the PRISMA guidelines for the systematic review of 16 quantitative and qualitative studies conducted between 2020-2023. Results: This systematic review suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic played a crucial role in hindering child development in early childhood. Conclusion: Therefore, it is important to promote and implement the use of policies and strategies to overcome these obstacles.

This paper aims to suggest an integration of dimensions, especially economic, social, environmental, and politics that are embedded in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within a framework called Umran. This Umranic framework hails from the idea of distinguished Muslim philosopher, historian and sociologist Ibn Khaldun, that is based on Islamic doctrines. As the present integration of the dimensions seems to be problematic, an exploration into the integration within Umranic framework is believed to be potentially a contributive endeavor. Based on an overview of literatures and a content analysis, this paper found that integrating dimensions of SDGs within the Umranic framework appears in the triangle of relationship between God, humans, and environment. This triangle exists in the form of an Islamic economic system. In this system, economic activities of natural resource utilization in various types of ownership undertake the sustainability dimension, that is the environmental protection and the promotion of equitable distribution, followed by the implementation of management of ownership and distribution rights according to Islamic rules. The pre-requisite on the part of the players is the high levels of spirituality. The application of this Islamic economic system followed by its political dimension will guarantee the achievement of SDGs even though it needs adjustment to a number of SDGs’ indicators that are not in accordance to Islamic teachings.

The majority of the population in developing countries resides in the rural area. Development itself cannot address the challenges of the rural area since its economic, political and environmental landscape is different from an urban area. The paper attempts to assess the rural dimension aspect of Nepali Agriculture Policy since rural development and agricultural development is closely resembled due to an agrarian-based economy of the country and a large rural population. Therefore, a critical review of National Agriculture Policy, 2004 (NAP-2004) was carried out under “Commercialization of Agriculture”, “Food Security”, “Rural Infrastructure”, “Gender”, “Climate Change” and “Social Inclusion” thematic area. The results showed that NAP-2004 satisfactorily address rural development albeit ample space for improvement. The findings of the paper could be beneficial to policymakers and development workers in the field of rural development and agriculture along with academicians having interest in it.

The Indonesian Navy's military condition in facing the globalization era of the industrial revolution 4.0 underwent many significant changes, both in policies and coaching practices that were implemented in regulating developments over the past decade. The competency model was an important basis of human resource functions such as recruitment, training and development, and performance management. The purpose of this study was to identifying and analyzing the pilot competency development model in the Naval Aviation Center. This research was a descriptive study with a qualitative approach. The results of this study concluded that the pilot of the Indonesian Naval Aviation Center requires the development of competency models that were quite significant in various areas of competence such as 1.) Interpersonal Pilot Communication Competencies; 2.) Competence of Aviation Security Personnel; 3.) Competency Constraint Satisfaction Optimization Problem; 4.) Competency of Flight Control Systems that have been tested, licensed, and well implemented.

This study examines the dynamics of failure development in marginalized communities, investigating the interplay of socioeconomic, environmental, and community engagement factors. The research aims to uncover underlying causes, provide policy recommendations, and elucidate the challenges faced by these communities. However, limitations include a restricted focus on marginalized areas, data limitations, and an exclusive emphasis on socioeconomic factors. The analysis reveals gaps in addressing political influences, limited coverage of success stories, and potential biases in the methodology. The conclusion emphasizes the transformative power of community-led initiatives to address challenges, foster inclusivity, and create sustainable change. These initiatives prioritize capacity building, social cohesion, economic development, and access to education and healthcare. Implications for policy and practice underscore the need for comprehensive interventions, collaboration, empowerment, and sustainable development. Future research directions include exploring the long-term impact of historical failures, intersectionality, the role of technology, mental health implications, and comparative analysis.

Does the choice of proxy for stock market development matter? This paper suggests that the growth effect of stock market development is sensitive to the choice of proxy and using alternative financial development indicators have practically no influence on the results. We found that using either the stock market capitalization to GDP ratio or the stock market returns; have a positive and significant effect on growth. However, we cannot make same conclusion when one uses either the ratio of total value of trades on the major stock exchanges to GDP or stock market turnover ratio to proxy for stock market development as the coefficient on these variables were found to be statistically insignificant. The indexes extracted from principal component analysis confirm the sensitivity of the effect to the choice of proxy. This finding suggest that stock market development is a conceptual terms, thus, representing it with single indicators make it impossible to identify which stock market development indicators have a significant positive growth effects.

Sport has the potential to support psychosocial development in young people. However, extant studies have tended to evaluate purpose-built interventions, leaving regular organised sport relatively overlooked. Moreover, previous work has tended to concentrated on a narrow range of outcomes. To address these gaps, we conducted a season-long ethnography of a youth performance sport club based on a novel Realist Evaluation approach [1]. We construed the club as a social intervention within a complex system of agents and structures. In this - Part 1 - account we detail the perceptions of former and current club parents, players and coaches, using them to build a set of programme theories. The resulting network of outcomes (i.e. self, emotional, social, moral and cognitive) and generative mechanisms (i.e., the attention factory, the greenhouse for growth, the personal boost, and the real-life simulator) spanning across multiple contextual layers provides a nuanced understanding of stakeholders’ views and experiences. This textured perspective of the multi-faceted process of development provides new insights for administrators, coaches and parents to maximise the developmental properties of youth sport, and signposts new avenues for research in this area.

The paper explores different models of innovation management at the regional level and reasons for the best model considering the specific features of St. Petersburg as the innovative region of Russia. The authors, on the base of their long-time experience in studies of innovative enterprises and elaborating the regional innovation policy in St. Petersburg, propose the tool of creation and measuring the results of the regional innovation policy that promotes the life quality improvement and regional sustainable development. The balanced scorecard is used as a method, based on the methodology of knowledge economy development and adjusted to the specific needs of St. Petersburg innovation eco-system. The authors pay special attention to the implementation of principles of green economy into the realization of the regional innovation policy and the proposed balanced scorecard.

In the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), education plays a fundamental role. However, traditional methodologies do not favor the enrichment and personal development essential to promote global awareness. The use of active methodologies based on experiences improve the quality of learning. This work describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of the acquired knowledge of a didactic proposal for non-formal education as a support for regulated education based on botany content. Firstly, a workshop was held, where young people participated directly in developing field work with a real scientific methodology. Subsequently, a group of students was chosen to be interviewed to obtain a global vision of the learning they obtained. The motivation of the students was quite positive, which allowed us to obtain voluntary participation in the field work and gave the students a participative attitude throughout the development of the workshops. Four months later, this positive attitude remained during their direct involvement in various activities, and the students still remembered the fundamental content discussed. Relating the didactic proposal to its immediate environment was shown to increase interest in learning and value in its own context. The results of this educational experience have been very positive, as knowledge was acquired, and interest in the preservation of the environment and the profession of a researcher was promoted.

Livestock is an integral part of agriculture which significantly contributes to the economic and socio-economic development. Based on its potential in natural resources and human resources, East Kalimantan Province has opportunity to become a beef cattle development area. The development of a corporate-based beef cattle breeding area is an approach which taken toward industrial and business-oriented beef cattle breeding. The concept of breeder corporation will create new strengths such as strengths in human resources, capital, and banking in business development, which can more open the opportunities for the success and growth of the breeder's business. The development of a corporate-based beef cattle breeding area provides opportunities, including: 1) improving the competitiveness and added value of the region and beef cattle commodities in order to support national sustainable food security; 2) strengthening the livestock business system in one area management in a holistic manner; and 3) strengthening breeders institutions in accessing information, technology, public facilities and infrastructure, capital, processing and marketing, so that the concept is expected to be applied in East Kalimantan Province.

The role of public-sector organizations (PSOs) for promoting the agenda of sustainability accounting and accountability is often not adequately considered [1]. In the public sector universe, Local Governments are close to their communities and thus have a particularly important role to play in the pursuit of sustainability goals [2,3]. Hence, further research is still needed to understand if Local Governments Organizations (LGOs) are still using reporting tools to promote sustainable development. The empirical data show that the Sustainability Report (SR) is not having the spread assumed in the past years; over time, the great majority of Italian Municipalities does not continue or embark on a path of sustainability reporting. The findings suggest the fashion of SR in Italy is falling and it seems that the SR tool is a “mere trend reporting based on descriptive indicators leads to decreasing interest from internal and external audiences” [4]. The carrot is unsuccessful; maybe the mandatory requirements could be a stick?

Conflict between agricultural water resources and socio-economy development is a global problem. Accurate evaluation of coordinated development of agricultural water resources and socio-economy and risk mitigation is necessary for sustainable development. An evaluation method, including selection of criteria, data collection, determination of weight, evaluation of coordinated development, prediction of parameters, and judgment of coordinated development state, has been proposed to study coordinated development degree. To deal with uncertainties, Monte Carlo method and fuzzy set method were used. The method is demonstrated to solve a real-world evaluation problem in Shanxi Province in the middle of China. Results show that coordinated development degrees were (0.7, 0.8) for most of the cities of Shanxi in 2015, indicating that coordinate development state was intermediate coordinate. To achieve balanced development, more attention should be put on socio-economic development in Taiyuan and Yanquan, and agricultural water resources utilization in Jinzhong, Yuncheng and Xinzhou. The average coordinated development degree is 0.758, and coordinate development state was intermediate coordinate from 2006 to 2015. Coordinated development degree has a trend of decreasing markedly, coordinate development state will be barely coordinated, and agricultural water resources utilization lags behind socio-economic development in 2020. The study demonstrates the practicability of the improved method, by evaluating coordinated development degree under uncertainty and forecasting future risks, which will conduce to promote sustainable development of agricultural water resources and socio-economy.

The contribution of academics and researchers to the discussion around sustainable rural development planning and its impact on rural communities has grown exponentially in recent years. Understanding trends in sustainable rural development research requires considering the different factors involved and affecting people from a holistic approach. This review examines, through bibliometric studies, the scientific knowledge generated on sustainable rural development planning in the last 50 years, analyzing 6,895 articles published in journals between 1970 and 2020. The results reveal the existence of three clusters and an important growth is observed to respond to the continuous needs in relation to sustainable rural development. This research shows the evolution of a new approach for the planning of sustainable rural development projects in postmodernity: Working with People (WWP). This WWP model, as a conceptual framework from social learning has been validated as a novel proposal in numerous contexts. The bibliometric analysis shows an evolution "From Putting the Last first" to "Working with People in Rural Development" research and the contributions of influential teachers such as Chambers and Cernea. These bibliometric analyses demonstrate the correct approach of WWP model, and open new fields of research in the planning of sustainable rural development projects.

Advances in genetic engineering have placed synthetic biology at a prime position to develop new products, materials, and services that could contribute to the 2030 UN Sustainable Development goals. These include novel materials for water purification, new bio-based products to replace toxic industrial chemicals, and engineered organisms for bioremediation. Supporting the development of synthetic biology initiatives in developing countries is needed to ensure these benefits are open to all.

The body of knowledge on ocean acidification gives a better understanding of biological sensitivity to low pH. Key parameters such as life-history strategies or local adaptation were identified as keys to predict species sensitivity and resolve previously some of the unexplained species- and population-specific differences. Encapsulation has been suggested as one of these keys as it exposed the embryo to low pH conditions, or ontogenetic hypercapnia, leading to physiological adaptation. We tested this hypothesis on the nudibranch Aeolidiella glauca by exposing their egg-strings containing large number of eggs to two different pH (8.1 and 7.3). The fertilized eggs developed 1 egg-cell, over early cleavage up to morula, blastula, gastrula, rhomboid-shaped rotating gastrula, early rotating veliger larvae with developed shell, to free-swimming well developed veliger larvae. Despite a corrosive environment, the exposure to low pH had no significant effect on the developmental rate. The only significant effects were a slightly smaller and narrower shell in larvae raised at low pH as compared to the high pH. Our results showed a remarkable resilient to low pH in a calcifying mollusc and support the idea that ontogenic hypercapnia is leading to low sensitivity to ocean acidification.

The social criteria of sustainable development have remained underexplored. Moreover, a large number of green building assessment tool and social sustainability documentations have been developed which, has had a direct impact on social criteria issues, but there seems to be a substantial gap in the study of social criteria in green building assessment tools. In examining the problem facing social sustainability, taking into consideration social sustainability in sustainable development reviews and green building assessment tool towards social aspects. This paper through analysis identified a centripetal conceptual framework composed of seven key components equity, education, participation & control, social cohesion, health & safety, accessibility & satisfaction, and cultural values. The interpretation of the social sustainability in green building assessment tool would impact building practitioners towards implementing social criteria in GBAT. The aim was to identify social categories as well as consider a starting point for the development of an effective social criteria assessment tool for green building.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) had become a priority in many school systems. Geography has a tradition of investigating human-environment interactions and geography education is vital in order to make sense of sustainable development (SD). In this paper, the authors aimed to contribute to the implementation of ESD and SD in middle school geography, in The People’s Republic of China. This research employed a series of methods to analyze the content in (SD) in middle school geography standards and textbooks. The research surveyed geography teachers (n=237) and assessed geography students (n=246). Results exemplified both positive and negative conclusions from the data. Primarily, the findings suggested that geography education was important to ESD implementation, although the requirements for SD are low in Chinese middle schools. The SD content was reflected clearly in the content standards and textbooks, but it was not evenly distributed in geography education. Many geography teachers in China have ample geography and interdisciplinary knowledge and they can use textbooks and other teaching methods to teach SD. The students’ performance, in a sample of four key schools, was considered “OK”, however there was still room for improvement. Most students were familiar with people, resources, environmental problems and climate change, however most were unable to grasp the factual knowledge about SD, such as international events and documents, latest predicted data and research on global warming, as well as the indicators used in the specific SD assessment. Suggestions include providing students with more practical activities and a chance to do hands-on experiments, as well as building student organizations and clubs; improve Teachers’ knowledge and understanding through teacher training program and build a platform for communicating ideas of SD through modern communication technology. Ideas of SD should be integrated into students’ daily life.

The increasing demand for sustainable products and services has become a constant requirement by the different stakeholders in an organization. Higher Education Institutions (HEI) have a crucial role in training conscious and competent professionals to lead these changes. Chemical analyses laboratories bring together the proper mix, where the adoption of mature and efficient management systems proves to be crucial not only to better train the institutions´ human resources but also to cooperate in recruiting research projects and other services to benefit society. Maturity models assist in the needed stages for sustainable growth to take place. This paper proposes a Maturity Model based on standardized norms to guide adjustments related to quality, risks, safety, and environment of chemical analyses laboratories in public higher education institutions. This research was done in four stages: theoretical research about Maturity Models, sustainability, and integrated management systems; survey with laboratories; case study at a chemical analyses laboratory of an HEI; and structuring and validating a maturity model. As a result of this, the model includes eight dimensions (Strategy, Leadership, Management, Operations, Continuous Improvement, Sustainability, Culture, and Integration), 31 subdimensions, and 204 management practices to assess and guide chemical analyses laboratories to sustainable maturity levels.

During the last 20 years, with the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), an emerging interest has appeared in Digital Community Engagement (DCE) in the process of cultural heritage management. Due to a growing need to involve a broader community in the Historic Urban Landscape approach, social media are considered one of the most important platforms to promote the public participation process of urban heritage conservation in the context of rapid urbanization. Despite the growing literature on DCE, which has delivered a general overview of different digital technologies and platforms to enhance heritage conservation, little research has been done on taking stock of the utilization of social media in this process. This study aims to fill the research gap by providing a more comprehensive picture of the functionalities of social media platforms and impacts on sustainable urban development through a systematic literature review. As a result, 19 out of 248 DCE relevant articles are selected as objects to illustrate the contribution of social media. The study identified the characteristics of these applied social media tools, explores their roles and influences in cases. The article concludes with directions for further research.

EuAP2 genes are famous for their role in flower development. A legacy of the founding member of this subfamily of transcription factor, whose mutants lacked petals in Arabidopsis. However, studies of other euAP2 genes in several species have accumulated evidence highlighting the diverse roles of euAP2 genes in other aspects of plant development. Here, we emphasize other developmental roles of euAP2 genes in various species and suggest a shift from regarding euAP2 genes as just flowering genes to consider the global role they may be playing in plant development. We hypothesize that their almost universal expression profile and pleiotropic effects of their mutation suggest their involvement in fundamental plant development processes.

The Corona Virus (COVID-19) pandemic situation has posed significant effect on tourism industry. Tourism destinations have embraced emergency health care measures and restrictions imposed on human movement around the world. Beaches and resorts are empty, peoples’ movements are stopped and travelling between territories is strictly controlled. The COVID-19 lockdown around the world has imposed negative impact on the livelihood of people and world economy as well. The present study attempts to find out the scopes for sustainable tourism development in near future from the consequences of social, economic, and environment in COVID-19 pandemic situation.

Ethylene, a gaseous phytohormone, is emerging as a central player in the intricate web of plant developmental processes from germination to senescence under optimal and stressed conditions. It is present in different plant parts, encompassing the stems, leaves, flowers, roots, seeds, and fruits. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of ethylene's fascinating roles in shaping various plant growth and adaptation aspects. It intricately examines the multifaceted impact of ethylene on pivotal aspects of plant development, including but not limited to cell division and elongation, senescence, abscission, fruit and flower development, root hair formation, chloroplast maturation, and photosynthesis. This comprehensive assessment encompasses the intricate pathways of ethylene biosynthesis and signaling, providing a snapshot of the regulatory mechanisms governing ethylene production. Understanding ethylene's multifaceted functions has significant implications for agriculture, biotechnology, and our fundamental comprehension of plant biology. This review underscores the need for continued investigation into ethylene's intricate mechanisms and its potential to revolutionize plant development and crop management.

Experiential learning can facilitate the development of transferrable skills necessary for success in attaining tenure and promotion in academia. In this article, we discuss the benefits of designing and implementing an individualized professional development experience or practicum. By doing this, we describe the experiential learning component of the Accomplishing Career Transitions (ACT) Program of the American Society for Cell Biology. The ACT program aims to assist postdoctoral trainees and junior faculty from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM as they strive to transition into tenure-track positions and ultimately attain tenure at research-intensive or teaching-intensive academic institutions.

The PI3K/AKT pathway is a key target in oncology where most efforts are focussed on phenotypes such as cell proliferation and survival. Comparatively little attention has been paid to PI3K in stemness regulation, despite the emerging link between acquisition of stem cell-like features and therapeutic failure in cancer. The aim of this review is to summarise current known and unknowns of PI3K-dependent stemness regulation, by integrating knowledge from the fields of developmental, signalling and cancer biology. Particular attention is given to the role of the PI3K pathway in pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) and the emerging parallels to dedifferentiated cancer cells with stem cell-like features. Compelling evidence suggests that PI3K/AKT signalling forms part of a ‘core molecular stemness programme’ in both mouse and human PSCs. In cancer, the oncogenic PIK3CA^H1047R variant causes constitutive activation of the PI3K pathway and has recently been linked to increased stemness in a dose-dependent manner, similar to observations in mouse PSCs with heterozygous versus homozygous Pten loss. There is also evidence that the stemness phenotype may become ‘locked’ and thus independent of the original PI3K activation, posing limitations for the success of PI3K monotherapy in cancer.Ongoing therapeutic developments for PI3K-associated cancers may therefore benefit from a better understanding of the pathway’s two-layered and highly context-dependent regulation of cell growth versus stemness.

The Societal Patterns Evolution Model (SPEM) (Gakh, 2023a) has been developed to apply to socio-technical systems. It contains patterns representing stages of societal development. Mapping of these patterns to the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Information Systems was presented at FedCSIS 2022 conference (Gakh, 2022c). This paper discusses the application of SPEM to model the development of three pillars of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental (Purvis, et al., 2019; United Nations, 2023).

Competency frameworks outline the perceived knowledge, skills and other attributes required for professional practice. Competency frameworks have gained in popularity, in part for their ability to inform health professions education, assessment, professional mobility, and other activities. Previous research has shown inadequate reporting within reports describing their development and that may jeopardize their use and application. We aimed to develop a set of minimum criteria that provides guidance to authors (and consumers) in an effort to improve reporting of the development of competency frameworks. The checklist was developed by a 35-member expert panel and a five-member research team following published guidance from the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) Network. The final checklist contains 20 essential reporting items including guidance on reporting title and abstract, framework development, the development process, testing and funding/conflicts of interest. The intent of the COmpeteNcy FramEwoRk Development in Health Professions (CONFERD-HP) reporting guideline is to help readers (including researchers, educators, regulators, health professionals, and patients) develop a greater understanding of relevant terminology, core concepts, and key items to report for competency framework development in health professions.

The research study examines the Digital government strategies of different countries and compare it with the Digital Pakistan Policy 2018. Different countries focus on the different factors/themes as per requirement of their countries and need of their citizens. Therefore, a requirement for re-search that compares the different digital government strategies has been identified. Secondary data on eGovernment strategies of different governments have been examined to investigate best practices in other countries. The qualitative data analysis software program NVivo has been used to facilitate code-based analysis of different digital government strategies. The findings and recommendations can be successfully utilized for the improvement of digital government strate-gies and its alignment with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), which were originally classified as exclusively deleterious compounds, have gained increasing interest in the recent years given their action as bona fide signalling molecules. The main target of ROS action is the reversible oxidation of cysteines, leading to the formation of disulfide bonds, which modulate protein conformation and activity. ROS endowed with signalling properties are mainly produced by NADPH oxidases at the plasma membrane, but their action also involves a complex machinery of multiple redox-sensitive protein families that differs in their subcellular localization and their activity. Given that the levels and distribution of ROS are highly dynamic in part due to their limited stability, the development of various fluorescent ROS sensors, some of which are quantitative (ratiometric), represents a clear breakthrough in the field and have been adapted to both ex vivo and in vivo applications. The physiological implication of ROS signalling will be presented mainly in the frame of morphogenetics processes, embryogenesis, regeneration, and stem cell differentiation. Gain and loss of function as well as pharmacological strategies have demonstrated the wide but specific requirement of ROS signalling at multiple stages of these processes and its intricate relationship with other well-known signalling pathways.

Objective: This paper aims to test the effect employee job training has on employee career development in the company.Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses a quantitative approach with the process of finding the knowledge by using data in the form of numbers as a tool that can be generalized to prove hypotheses. The population in this study was 135 employees by sampling 100 employees using sampling method probability by using random sampling type samples to use slovin formula. Analysis techniques use multiple linear regressions.Findings: The results showed that job training influences the career development of employees in companies with a significant rate of 0.00 less than α=0.05.Practical Implications: The results of the study are recommended for company employees to conduct job training as a tool to improve career development.Originality: Previous research has been conducted to test job training on employee career development in large companies; the findings conclude that employee job training affects employee career development. This research researchers try to research medium-scale companies down.

Volunteer tourism or ‘voluntourism’ packages development and poverty as culturally exotic and ethical experiences for tourists from industrialized countries. In the university sector study abroad tours network voluntourism agencies, local actors, e.g. NGOs, universities and government funding to offer students ‘life changing’ experiential and community development learning. Recent criticism of the commodification of development and poverty through such tours points to multiple pernicious effects of such travel, especially the failure to deliver community impact. Following review of current criticism of voluntourism, this illustrative case study of a purported sustainable housing project in rural Maharashtra employs multiple data sources and covert research to explore the multiple gaps between participatory community sustainable development and voluntourism. The study finds signal lack of financial transparency, incompetent assessment of material needs, and limited local participation and control, failure to deliver on objectives, and recommends that socially responsible short term international exchanges should be carefully monitored and prefer knowledge exchange.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the biggest group of enterprises in the European Union (EU); they are also characteristic for emerging economies. Given this situation, there is a need to provide instruments such as processes, which allows them to realize a model of sustainable development. The ability to classify processes and occurrences happening inside these processes often affects the condition of the enterprises. The implementation of innovations, as identified process, enables the directions of SME development towards sustainable development. The purpose of this article is to find out if the identification of processes such as innovations, have any influence on the competitiveness and sustainable development of SMEs. This study was based on pilot research, which examined small and medium enterprises at the regional level, at the example of Polish emerging economy region. It was researched under the angle of the identification of processes and changes happening inside enterprises in terms of understanding the sustainable development concept. Research composition allows to present an understanding by the SMEs of the problems analyzed. The novelty was in the new questionnaire, the definition of sustainable development, and matching those processes identified by the enterprises analyzed with the particular sustainable development dimensions suggested by the authors. In light of the analysis of the literature and the results of this research the important contributions of this study are as follows. This approach pointed the understanding and practical meaning of the identification of processes to be understood. The most important finding was that there is a need to make entrepreneurs aware of the fact that innovations are also processes in themselves, which often constitutes the sum of other supporting processes occurring in the enterprise. Support in the form of knowledge transfer from experts to SMEs would also be recommended.

This survey proposed an evaluation model to analyze and examine different approaches to generativity. In addition to problem domain concepts, the following concepts were used to define this model: Complexity and complexity management, and Systematics view to achieve unified and integrated insight into disparate evaluation criteria. The research's approach to the said concepts is first introduced. Then, the evaluation model is presented.

Accessing energy in the world is crucial nowadays. Energy is an essential factor to achieve other SDGs including SDG7. However, the determination and evaluation of the relationship between different energy scenarios to achieve SDG 7 and other SDGs have not done yet. This paper seeks to fill this gap by investigating how energy seniors can contribute to achieving SDG 7 and other SDGs. Web of Science, ScienceDirect and Scopus databases were utilized for conduction a systematic review. A total finial 25 from 249 papers were filtered from 2015 to December 2020 via inclusion and exclusion criteria. This review involves six seniors of energy which primary linked to achieving the SDG 7 and other SDGs: modern energy 20% (n = 5/25), energy access 16% (n = 4/20), energy efficiency 8% (n= 2/16), renewable energy 28% (n= 7/14), energy services 8% (n= 2/7), and miscellaneous energy 20% (n= 5/5). This systematic review explores the opportunities, constraints and limitations, recommendations, and new directions. The results show that different energy scenarios contribute to achieving mainly (SDG7) and other SDGs. The outcomes from this systematic review provide a sense of direction for future researchers for future studies in this domain.

The present research is embedded in the professional development and research line and in the needs of secondary education and first-year university teachers. We focussed on evidencing the importance of teachers’ professional training to include some specific adaptation and skills in intercultural dialogue and understanding -often called Intercultural Competence- because of its direct impact on the sustainable development of human beings, groups, and ecosystems. We investigated the role played by each of the main competencies linked to the following intercultural dimensions: Professional Identity, Ethics and Axiology, Methodology, and Inclusive Education. We used an integrated methodology and a cross-study of data, performed after the obtention of a three-cornered evaluation of results collected in focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires. We were able to show the impact of intercultural dialogue and understanding in the education for a sustainable development pattern. This is fundamental to set up a new ecology of forms, knowledge, attitudes, and educational meanings, further used to update teachers and students’ training in sustainable ecology and cultural diversity. Progress made in these complementary competencies -Professional Identity, Ethics and Axiology, Methodology- were appraised by teachers participating in the present study; the latter showing an increased interest and demand for the intercultural competence, after increasing their proficiency in the other complementary competencies.

Keywords: Cocoa value chain; Fair trade; Chocolate; Sustainable development; SDGs

A smart city is a futuristic approach that evolves with new technologies. It can start as a simple community and evolve into future cities. In most developing countries, where the population growth is faster, and where the organization and the urbanization are slower, there is a serious need for a framework for progressive change towards sustainable cities. This article discusses the level of intelligence of smart city components and proposes indicators as well as a methodology for measuring intelligence based on the objectives to be achieved as well as a certain number of technical requirements and some cognitive processes implemented.

Part 1 of this 2-paper series identified a wide and deep network of context, generative mechanisms and outcomes responsible for psychosocial development in a performance basketball club. In this – part 2 – study, the stakeholder’s programme theories were tested during a full-season ethnography of the same club. The findings confirm the highly individualised nature of each young person’s journey. Methodologically, immersion in the day-to-day environment generated a fine-grain analysis of the processes involved, including: i) sustained attentional focus; ii) structured and unstructured skill building activities; iii) deliberate and incidental support; and iv) feelings indicating personal growth. Personal development in and through sport is thus shown to be conditional, multi-faceted, time-sensitive and idiosyncratic. The findings of this two-part study are considered to propose a model of psychosocial development in and through sport. This heuristic tool is presented to support sport psychologists, coaches, club administrators and parents to deliberately create and optimise developmental environments.

The consumption of rice, which recently increases globally, leads to requirement for planning sustainable water management for paddy cultivation. In this research, SWAT model was modified to evaluate sustainability of paddy cultivation. Modifications to simulate paddy cultivation are 1) to equip with a new water balance model of impounded fields, 2) to add an irrigation management option for paddy fields, which is characterized by flood irrigation managed by farmers on a daily basis, 3) to consider puddling operation that influences water quality and infiltration rate of soil. The enhanced model, named SWAT-PADDY, was applied to an agricultural watershed in Japan as a case study. The modified model succeeded in representing paddy cultivation in the study area. However, SWAT-PADDY underestimated base flow in irrigation period. The cause of this is inferred that the modified model doesn’t represent return flow of excess withdrawal of river water. In conclusion, addition of the models of impoundment and management practices in paddy fields to SWAT improved field scale simulation of water balance and irrigation in paddy fields. However, further improvement of the model on irrigation return flow process is needed to better predict hydrology of watersheds dominated by paddy irrigation.

A Water demand per capita will rise in the Arab world as a result of climate change and population expansion. One of the most important aims in coping with population increase around the world is to conserve water supplies. As a result, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia constructed Al Wajeed Water Treatment System to meet the demands of the southern population. This research aims to assess the drinking water quality produced from the AlWajeed Water Treatment System. Monthly water samples were collected (January 2018 to January 2021) from the Al Wajeed Water Treatment Framework (4sites), extending to governorates; Bishah`s distribution system (5sites) and Tathleeth`s distribution system (7sites). Water quality criteria, such as physical, chemical, and microbiological parameters, revealed that the majority of water samples collected from the Al Wajeed Water Framework and its environs are of a good quality matched the national and international standards. Few sites showed water quality criteria, such turbidity, fluoride and total coliform did not comply with national and global standards. The obtained results explained the importance of monitoring and follow-up programs for drinking water criteria. In addition, they can help the authorities and stakeholders in the sustainable development.

The research is designed for developing the pilot small-scale clean development mechanism bundled project activities in Vietnam electricity/ energy sector. Its overall purpose is to assess the potential of rice husk - fuelled bio-power development projects in Mekong delta. Based on estimating the electricity potential of a bundle of rice husk-fuelled bio-power development projects in Mekong delta with the capacity of 11 MW per project, assessing their CO₂ emission reductions (CERs) and CER credits, calculating and comparing their financial indices (NPV, B/C, IRR) in two cases: W/O CDM and W/CDM, the research expects to establish a rice husk energy balance flowchart for the whole Mekong delta in the year 2021 and recommend policies to use for bio-power generation the unused rice husk that is dumped and discharged from local paddy milling centers into rivers and canals, as well as, to put forward a safe and environmentally friendly solution to minimize thoroughly the current serious pollution of rivers and canals in Mekong delta with the increasing unused rice husk quantity in the context is where the sea level rise phenomenon is the strongest in the world .

In the dynamic landscape of Sabah's socio-economic development, the integration of AI technologies holds both promise and challenge. While AI has the potential to drive economic growth, enhance productivity, and elevate quality of life, it also brings forth concerns regarding job displacement, skill gaps, and unequal distribution of benefits. The latest research problem in the realm of AI and employment in Sabah revolves around ensuring inclusive and sustainable development amidst this technological disruption. This encompasses two key dimensions: skill development and education, and labor market dynamics. Addressing the research questions necessitates a multifaceted approach. Firstly, in the realm of skill development and education, there is a critical need to assess the adequacy of existing programs in equipping the workforce with AI-driven skills. Strategies such as promoting STEM education, fostering digital literacy, and facilitating lifelong learning initiatives, particularly among marginalized communities, are essential. Additionally, fostering collaboration between stakeholders and implementing curriculum reforms are pivotal steps in enhancing the alignment between educational curricula and the demands of an AI-driven economy.

A better study of the postnatal retinal development is not only essential for the in-depth understanding of the nature of the vision system but also may provide insights for treatment developments of eye conditions, such as retinopathy of premature (ROP). To date, quantitative analysis of postnatal retinal development is primarily limited to endpoint histological examination. This study is to validate in vivo optical coherence tomography (OCT) for longitudinal monitoring of postnatal retinal development in developing mouse eyes. Three-dimensional (3D) frame registration and super averaging were adopted to investigate the fine structure of the retina. Interestingly, a hyporeflective layer (HRL) between the nerve fiber layer (NFL) and inner plexiform layer (IPL) was observed in developing eyes and gradually disappeared with aging. To interpret the observed retinal layer kinetics, a model based on eyeball expansion, cell apoptosis, and retinal structural modification was proposed.

There is a growing recognition of the need to incorporate sustainability considerations early-on in the product development (PD) process (PDP). As part of a case study at an engineering consultancy firm, this paper identifies considerations that influence the integration of sustainable design practices into real-world PD practices. This is informed by the first author getting embedded in the firm as an intern, and closely observing the PD workflow across various projects, conducting interviews and group discussions with a wide range of practitioners, and iteratively designing and testing various potential interventions. From literature and observation, we find that designers and engineers often struggle to identify and apply the right sustainable design methods and tools (SDMTs) to tackle the environmental impacts associated with their products. Through a human-centered design process, we co-created a reusable, modular framework of practices that aids the selection of relevant strategies, based on the environmental hotspots, stage of the PD process, and the client’s sustainability priorities. The paper further presents insights related to the framework’s real-world application and impacts in the firm, based on results of longitudinal engagement with the firm.

We aimed to investigate the ability of children aged 5–14 years old (preschoolers, primary schoolers, and preteens) to assess and anticipate time intervals. 287 Russian children aged 5–14 years old and 26 adults of control group participated in our study. The neuropsychological assessment, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and a battery of time-related tests were applied. All groups of children overestimated the event’s duration, although the accuracy of the second estimations increased among the participants aged 6–8 years after a prompt was offered. A zone of proximal development for time anticipation task was detected for children aged 9-11 years, when the prompt could significantly improve the accuracy of time perception. The participants overestimated the duration of both upcoming and past events, with the degree of overestimation being found to be negatively correlated with age. Further, a higher degree of accuracy in terms of time estimation was found to be correlated with higher scores on the attention and memory tests, and accuracy of time anticipation was associated with scores of praxis test.

The consequences of growing urbanization can be perceived in multiple levels around the globe: overpopulated living conditions, water and air pollution, loss of open space, costly transportation infrastructure, food shortages, fires and floods. The Houston metropolitan area is an example of fast urban growth, with a population increase of more than sixteen percent in seven years, going from 5.8 million people in 2010 to 6.9 million in 2017 [1]. By 2045, the robust growth of the region is projected to lead to the addition of approximately five hundred square miles of developed area, including an estimated six million parking spaces, seven hundred eighty million square feet of non-residential uses, and three and a half billion square feet of residential use [2]. The accelerated development, in addition to physical features, geomorphic processes and human activities in the region are believed to have caused Houston to suffer through over fifty devastating floods since its settlement, despite some successful flood damage reduction projects. The present study focused on the potential outcomes of an increased use of green infrastructure in comparable urban areas, and its effects on flooding volume. Results from the research revealed that not only these measures would likely improve the performance of existing urban drainage systems and attenuate flood incidence in the area, but would also promote connectivity between areas otherwise detached or only accessible by car, improving walkability and incentivizing engagement in outdoor activities.

The high-quality development of urban-rural integration is a vital component of China's economy, serving as a strategic response to the in-depth deployment of new urbanization and rural revitalization strategies. This integration is underscored by the promotion of entrepreneurship in agriculture, rural areas, and among farmers, which acts as a driver for fostering high-quality development in urban-rural areas through market competition. The resulting influx of resources and commodities with similar characteristics plays a crucial role in bridging the urban-rural divide. To maintain objectivity, it is important to adopt a balanced approach and refrain from using biased language. This study delves into the connotation and internal mechanism of the high-quality development of urban-rural integration, centering on the principle of 'quality'. Specifically, it examines the role of entrepreneurship in agriculture, rural areas, and among farmers, and evaluates its direct impact and transmission mechanism. The research employs balanced panel data from 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta region spanning from 2003 to 2021. The findings reveal that entrepreneurship in agriculture, rural areas, and among farmers serves as a catalyst for promoting high-quality urban-rural development through the construction of a virtuous cycle, whereby resource factors and commodity services are exchanged. Moreover, this deep integration yields diverse effects across economic, spatial, demographic, social, and ecological domains, underscoring the necessity of continued support for entrepreneurship in agriculture, rural areas, and among farmers to facilitate a seamless urban-rural economic cycle and fully realize the benefits of high-quality development.

Background: Tourism is one of the prominent industry that has a capability to generate handsome income for developed as well as developing countries. However, the study to investigate specifically the perception of local residents towards tourism is still lacking. The perception of the locals is important since it could determine the extent of their support for tourism development. Plus, previous research found that male residents are more support better towards the tourism development. Thus, this factor is adapted as well in this study to examine whether this gender may influence to the tourism industry. 2) Methods: This study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique for determining the structural estimates between constructs. 3) Results: The respondents agree that positive perception, negative perception and tourism impact has a significant impact on support for tourism development in which has been recognized as Social Exchange Theory model. Moreover, the finding also revealed that gender has a potential to moderates the causal effect of tourism impact on tourism development. 4) Conclusion: The resident understand the tourism sector could strengthen economic nation but they also want the natural resources should be protected.

The imperfection of theoretical and methodological approaches to regulate the jump process transition when combining differentiated energy resources is a pressing issue. The goal of this paper is to develop a theory and a method to regulate the integration-balancing processes of combining diversified resources. The concept of combining integration and balancing models has been substantiated by methods of transforming multidimensional space and approximating generalized functions that represent jump-like processes. Theoretical and operational-regulatory models of economic sustainability have been developed, substantiating new concepts, patterns, properties, dependencies and indicators of the dynamics of the processes of combination; the optimality conditions for the number of approximations of generalized functions, interpreting the effects of control functions of combining resources, are determined. New methods for solving problems have been developed: the organization of the energy technology complex of facilities for enhanced resource diversification and the Center for Sustainability, improving the quality of managing dynamic processes in terms of combining and diversifying resources.

Avocado (Persea americana Mill.) plant fruits are well-known for their high nutritional value, unique test, and healthy oil. It has a history of about 10,000 years. Avocado fruit offers many health benefits, and its production is rapidly increasing. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s recent data suggest that the Avocados produced in the world in 2019 was twice that of 2010 (3778010 tons). Avocado’s global Gross Production Value was about 5.812 billion USD in 2018, and it is likely to increase rapidly because of the increasing demand for Avocado fruits. Avocado oil is also used in the cosmetic industry because of its therapeutic properties, and it boosts the economic value of the Avocado industry. Avocado fruits have a rough green-gold skin; however, fruits are called ‘the green gold’ because of their massive global demand in the worldwide market and a lucrative business. The cultivation of Avocado has tremendous potential in increasing the rural economy, rural agriculture-based employment and reducing the poverty rate of growers. On the other hand, the Avocado industry is highly criticised because of deforestation, massive water utilisation, polluting water bodies with insecticides and fertilisers, posing a threat to other plant species, and environmental pollution. However, it doesn’t preclude the importance of Avocado. Cameroon’s average temperature is about 23 °C, which is considered optimal for Avocado propagation and commercial cultivation. Cameroon Association of Active Youths (CAMAAY) want to explore the possibilities of engaging Cameroon youths in Avocado cultivation. This review is aimed to provide an overview of Avocado. The review also highlights Avocado cultivation related issues from one health and sustainability perspective in line with the global goals.

Numerous studies in the literature have investigated the effect of financial development on poverty, and tend to report a poverty reduction effect of financial development. The present paper considers the issue in the other way around, by examining the effect of poverty on financial development. In particular, it has investigated the financial development effect of poverty that passes through three main channels, including the education level, the level of trade openness, and the degree of export product concentration. The analysis is carried out using a sample of 97 developing countries over the period 1980-2017, and the two-step Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM). Results have shown that poverty genuinely affects financial development through these three channels. Specially, lower poverty rates induce greater financial development in countries that experience higher education levels. Similarly, a rise in poverty rates in the context of restrictive trade policies (that eventually result in lower levels of trade openness) undermines the development of the financial sector. Finally, higher poverty levels adversely affect financial development in countries that experience an increase in the level of export product concentration.

The paper presents a theoretical and empirical assessment of this social phenomenon. The achieved scientific solution-result (Main Finding) is presented a theoretical model of the develop-ment of public citizenship in a sustainable environment has been created for the case of Lithuania. First of all, the paper discusses the conceptual issues of the expression of modernisation of civil society, highlighting and justifying the interaction of social changes and sustainable environment in economic, social, political, environmental and cultural aspects, presenting the case of Lithuania (The Case of Lithuania). On the other hand, following the United Nations Sustainable Development Strategy document, the field of progress and resilience of Lithuanian society in modern society is discussed, identifying and analysing various criteria that have been empirically tested. The authors noted that the democratic cube model was used to create a theoretical model of the development of public citizenship in a harmonious environment, and the HDI (human development index model) was also integrated. The model created by the authors systematically explains the analysis of the relationship between the expression of modernisation changes identified in the research and the formation of civil society; secondly, it substantiates the process of interaction between modernisation changes and public citizenship, discussing four fields of expression. Practical applicability of the model: it will help researchers to conceptually analyse and empirically study public citizenship; will help public policymakers and implementers to manage effectively, ensuring quality changes in society and managing new challenges, and it will also contribute to the conceptual formation of the country's long-term development strategy.

The Ghana Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF), a government-sponsored initiative, plays a pivotal role in providing patient capital to foster entrepreneurship and spur economic development, particularly in emerging markets where traditional funding avenues may be limited. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the VCTF's financial robustness, growth trajectory, and sustainability over a seven-year period from 2016 to 2022. Through an examination of critical financial metrics, growth indicators, and sustainability benchmarks, we scrutinize the fund's financial health, investment strategies, and capacity to bolster the Ghanaian entrepreneurial ecosystem.The analysis reveals nuanced insights into the VCTF's financial performance over the study period. Despite encountering challenges such as negative net profit margins and subdued asset turnover ratios in previous years, the fund showcases resilience and sustainability, particularly as evidenced by notable improvements in 2022. These findings carry implications for management, policymakers, and various stakeholders within the Ghanaian venture capital landscape, offering valuable insights to inform strategic decision-making and policy formulation.

The concerning worldwide increase of obesity and chronic metabolic diseases such as T2D, dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular disease motivates further investigations into preventive and alternative therapeutic approaches. Over the past decade, there is growing evidence that the formation and activation of thermogenic adipocytes (brown and beige) may serve as therapy to treat obesity and its associated diseases owing to its capacity to increase energy expenditure and to modulate circulating lipids and glucose levels. Thus, understanding the molecular mechanism of brown and beige adipocytes formation and activation will facilitate the development of strategies to combat metabolic disorders. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of pathways and players involved in the development of brown and beige fat as well as the role of thermogenic adipocytes in energy homeostasis and metabolism. Also, we discuss the alterations in brown and beige adipose tissue function during obesity and, explore the therapeutic potential of thermogenic activation to treat metabolic syndrome.

AI-based approaches are increasingly being used to revolutionize vaccine development for COVID-19. Small molecules, peptides, and epitopes are being collected for therapy discovery, which could also direct AI-based models, screening, or generation [1]. AI-based models are being used for drug discovery and vaccine development, and pre-existing data is being leveraged through machine learning approaches for COVID-19 drug discovery and vaccine development [1]. The best candidate targets for future treatment development are being identified and evaluated using AI-based models [1]. AI-based approaches can be used to overcome challenges in manufacturing, storage, logistics, and safety and efficacy issues related to different vaccine candidates for COVID-19 [2]. AI algorithms can help identify the best vaccine candidates for COVID-19 while considering the efficiency of antigenic peptides for immune response generation [2]. The presentation of antigenic peptides by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules is the first step after COVID-19 vaccine administration for any vaccine-induced immune response [2]. Thus, AI-based models are being used to identify the best vaccine candidates for COVID-19 and to ensure that the vaccine-induced immune response is efficient and safe. The utilization of AI-based methods to address logistical, manufacturing, storage, safety, and efficacy issues regarding several COVID-19 vaccine candidates will be examined in this study. Additionally, while considering the effectiveness of antigenic peptides for the induction of an immune response, we will determine the best potential targets for the next treatment development and assess how AI-based models can help discover the best vaccine candidates for COVID-19. This research ultimately intends to offer insights into how AI-based techniques can transform COVID-19 vaccine development and how they can be applied to address vaccine development issues. In this paper, we focus on recent advances in using artificial intelligence to develop COVID-19 drugs and vaccines, as well as the potential of intelligent training in discovering COVID-19 therapeutics, highlighting potential challenges and solutions.

The demand for renewable energy is increasing globally due to concerns about climate change, pollution, and the finite nature of fossil fuel resources, as renewable energy has been recognized as a significant factor in realizing sustainable development. The government of Saudi Arabia adopted the reduction of fossil fuel subsidies policy as a financial motivation for supporting both the production and consumption of fossil fuels. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influence and shocks of Saudi’s financial development indicators on renewable energy consumption (REC). And to examine the track of causality between financial development indicators and REC. The study covers the annual data period of 1990-2021 and applies the Basic Vector Autoregressive model (VAR), Granger causality test, forecast error variance decomposition (FEVD), and impulse response function (IRF). The results imply that the financial development indicators have a significant positive impact on REC. The results of causality between REC and financial development indicators were conflicting. The results reveal that REC variation is explained by its innovative shocks and has a positive response to shocks in financial development. Authorities can encourage investment in renewable energy consumption by providing financial incentives also the governments can foster national and international partnerships between investors, policymakers, and industry stakeholders. Employing different determinants of financial development indicators and incorporating population factors in the REC function will be highly recommended for forming the renewable energy demand in Saudi Arabia.

The fact that Thailand’s energy policy has set a new renewable energy target of 30% of total final energy consumption by 2036. It also has the potential of solar energy and community demands in remote areas. However, most of the renewable energy technology will still be able to achieve renewable energy goals, similar to the case of the national policy that promotes Solar Home System (SHS) in remote areas, lack of good handling. Therefore, achieving the goal of the renewable energy policy should be in position using the right strategy. This article presents the result of a case study in the Akha upland community, northern Thailand, where we used the mixing method and factor analysis to analyze strategies for SHS related criteria. The key scopes and challenge included bottom-up planning concepts and subsidies from expert persons, while contributions to factors have an impact on developing sustainable SHS, include the creating approval of SHS technologies, developing of SHS management, promoting of SHS technologies, and supporting of SHS policies, respectively. Mainly, social factors provide positive effects, which thus influence the sustainable development of process SHS in terms of the creation of approval. Furthermore, there should be managed appropriately for each community, for the positive imagery of solar power.

This research project was funded by the Masterplan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia's Economic Development (MP3EI). The objective of this study was to examine the role of indigenous people of Marind in the agricultural development of rice cultivation in Merauke. A survey was conducted in three villages in Merauke using stratified random sampling. The finding suggest that indigenous people of Marind have a crucial role in the agricultural development of rice cultivation in Papua.

Washing hands, social distancing and staying at home are the preventive measures set in place to contain the spread of the COVID-19, a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. These measures, although straightforward to follow, highlight the tip of an imbalanced socio-economic and socio-technological iceberg. Here, a System Dynamic (SD) model of COVID-19 preventive measures and their correlation with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is presented. The result demonstrates a better informed view of the COVID-19 vulnerability landscape. This novel qualitative approach refreshes debates on the future of SDGS amid the crisis and provides a powerful mental representation for decision makers to find leverage points that aid in preventing long-term disruptive impacts of this health crisis on people, planet and economy. There is a need for further tailor-made and real-time qualitative and quantitative scientific research to calibrate the criticality of meeting the SDGS targets in different countries according to ongoing lessons learned from this health crisis.

Along with the advantages associated with access to information and fast communication, screen time from increased digital media consumption has recently been associated with adverse effects on youth well-being. To get a clearer picture of its value for global youth based sustainability initiatives, this study investigates the effects of increased digital media consumption on youth's interests in ecosystem services, sustainability and science as a means for disease prevention. We achieve this, using data on 187821 adolescent students from 50 countries worldwide. Methodologically, we rely on a mixed bivariate ordered probit representation of youth's joint interest in the biosphere (ecosystem services and sustainability) and science as a means for disease prevention, which we then estimate using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) Methods. We found that each level increase in adolescent students' reported frequency of news blogs visits and web browsing on broad science adversely affect their interests in ecosystem services, sustainability and science as a means for disease prevention. Although each level increase in youth's frequency of ecological website visits also reduces by 20% (with 95% CI [-0.36; -0.32]) their interests in the biosphere, it is found to increase however by 3% (with 95% CI [0.02; 0.05]) their interest science as a means for disease prevention. Overall, our results highlight heterogeneous effects of digital media consumption on adolescents' well-being in terms of their interests in ecosystem services, sustainability, and science as a means for disease prevention.

Developing sustainability competences is an important endeavor for education, as competence development can be complex and requires appropriate approaches. In the case of preparing future educators, this becomes even more important, because of their multiplier role. The current study presents how a project, based on living-lab methodology, helped preservice preschool teachers, attending a course on sustainability issues, develop sustainability-specific professional action competence. Students collaborated with an organization and a school and were trained to deliver to 6-year-old pupils, activities concerning the protection of sea turtles. The process included reflection, based on a given template. After the intervention, the preservice preschool teachers reflected upon their role and professional performance and discussed how they, benefited from this project. They further analyzed through a group interview, how the Living Lab methodology raised their professional confidence and self-efficacy, and helped them develop content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and a sense of purpose and motivation for teaching about sustainability. Outcomes indicate that participants felt confident and efficacious to teach about sustainability, and developed their content knowledge, pedagogy content knowledge, motivation, and volition due to a strong sense of purpose and responsibility. The overall process facilitated the development of critical thinking, systemic thinking, reflection, and collaboration..

Background: The adoption of self-care behaviors among patients with arterial hypertension (AH) plays an important role in the management of their health condition. However, a lack of scales assessing self-care is observed. We aimed to develop and validate the Hippocratic hypertension self-care scale. Methods: From a pool of questions derived from a literature review, 18 items were included in the scale and reviewed by a committee of experts. Participants indicate the frequency at which they follow the self-behavior prescribed in each statement on a five-point Likert scale. Data were collected between April 2019 and December 2019. Re-sults: 202 consecutive adult patients with AH were enrolled in the study. The internal consistency of the scale was found to be 0.807, using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. An exploratory factor analysis identified two do-mains that accounted for 92.94% of the variance of the scale items; however, each sub-scale could not be used as an independent scale. Finally, the test- retest of the scale showed a significant strong correlation (r=0.0095, p<0.001). Conclusion: Our data indicate that the scale is a reliable and valid tool for assessing self-behaviors in patients with AH. Health professionals can use it in their clinical practice to improve the management of patients’ health condition.

(1) Background: The importance of this article is to analyze the technological developments in the field of the Internet and Internet technologies and to determine their significance for the sustainable development which will result in the emergence of the Society 5.0; (2) The authors used automated content analysis for the analysis of 552 articles published in 306 scientific journals indexed by SCII and/or SCI - EXPANDED (Web of Science (WOS) platform) between the years 1996 and 4/2020. The goal of the research was to present the relationship between the internet and sustainable development. (3) Results: The results of the analysis show that the top four most important themes in the selected journals were “development”, “information”, “data”, and “business and services”. (4) Conclusions: Our research approach emphasizes the importance of the culmination of scientific innovation with the conceptual, technological and contextual frameworks of the internet and internet technology usage and its impact on sustainable development and emergence of the Society 5.0

As we embrace the new normal in the aftermath of Covid-19, the year 2020 also marks the decade of action as we start the 10-year countdown to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. In this paper, we attempt to explore the extent to which the hardly won development gains over the last years could be reversed due to the unfolding COVID-19 global pandemic, how do we reboot the global response to accelerate the SDGs in times of uncertainties, and most importantly how to turn the recovery into an opportunity to build back better and more resilient economies. To do so, we examine the case of blockchain as one of the emerging innovative work-streams in development practices that could lead the way forward and pave the path for new developmental narratives as we all navigate the uncharted territories of the new digital age.

The year 2021 marks the 70th anniversary of establishing the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) within the People’s Republic of China. As with China as a whole, Tibet has experienced a tumultuous history over these past seventy years. Especially since the 1980s, the region has witnessed significant economic development, poverty alleviation, and increased social indicators such as life expectancy and healthcare. At the same time, substantial disparity within Tibet, as well as between Tibet and the rest of China, persists. This article tracks 16 social, economic, and ecological indicators for the past several decades, as well as levels of economic assistance provided to Tibet by other Chinese provinces and the Chinese central government in an attempt to narrow the development gap between Tibet and the rest of the country. The results show that since 1951, despite progress in many aspects, there remains a substantial gap between Tibet’s indicators and the average level of China, with the biggest gap being the illiteracy rate. Uneven development between regions within Tibet, especially between urban and rural areas, also persists.

Chrysoeriol (CHE) is a flavonoid substance that exists in many plants and has various physiological and pharmacological effects, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-tumor, and protective activity, especially for the cardiovascular system and liver. This study aimed to analyze the results and possible mechanisms of CHE on early porcine embryo development. Adding CHE to the culture media can improve the development quality of early porcine embryos. CHE significantly increased the blastocyst rate and total cell number of embryos in vitro. The apoptosis of blastocyst in CHE-treated culture also decreased significantly compared with untreated culture. Furthermore, CHE downregulated intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and increased glutathione (GSH) in embryos. CHE was also shown to improve the activity of mitochondria and inhibit the occurrence of autophagy. In addition, antioxidant-related genes (SOD1, SOD2, and CAT) and cell pluripotency-related genes (SOX2, OCT4, and NANOG) were upregulated, while those related to apoptosis (Caspase 3) and autophagy (LC3B) showed a downward trend after supplementation with CHE. These results indicated that CHE improved the development of porcine embryos in vitro by reducing oxidative stress and autophagy levels.

This study aimed to verify the sex differences in early syntactic development among Cantonese-speaking children by Tse et al. (2002), with the same corpus design but a different Chinese language: Mandarin. The utterances produced during half-hour play activities by 192 Beijing children, ranging from 3 to 6 years, were collected in the Early Child Mandarin Corpus (Li &amp; Tse, 2011) and analyzed for this study. Their syntactic development was measured in terms of mean length of utterance (MLU), sentence type and structure, syntactic complexity, and verb pattern. The statistical analyses indicated significant age differences in MLU, sentence types and structures, and syntactic complexity. However, no sex or age-by-sex differences were found. This negative evidence indicates that sex difference is neither universal nor cross-language. The implications for early childhood education and future studies are discussed.

This paper uses the spatial analysis software GeoDa as a tool, takes GRP (Gross regional product) of Sichuan Province in 2012 and 2018 as the dependent variable, and takes the city (autonomous prefecture) factor-driven, investment-driven and innovation-driven indicators as the dependent variable to explore the impact of innovation activities on regional economic development and the spatial distribution characteristics of regional economy. Through the comparison of the global correlation and local correlation, this paper explores the crux of the regional economic polarization and unbalanced development, and puts forward some measures to solve the existing economic development problems, such as cultivating and improving the regional industrial dependence, accelerating the regional transportation accessibility and convenience, and constructing the regional collaborative innovation system, So as to achieve the strategic goal of the construction of innovative Province in Sichuan Province.

Rural tourism has been proved as an effective approach in many rural areas in China, and during the development processes, local institutions play significant roles in the context of China. This paper is to explore various roles of local institutions in the development of rural tourism in a typical community, Dazhai, in Guilin City. Within its limitations, it examines the roles by identifying the current situations of the community, formal and informal institutions that affect the rural tourism development.Obstacles still exist because of the “top-bottom”political system.

This study presents the main ideas of sustainable cultural tourism development, a form of tourism associated with work discover and explore the culture of each region. It implies taking into account economic, environmental and socio-cultural aspects by tourism planning and management. The paper presents the historical background of the idea of sustainability, the factors that affect the sustainability of culture in tourism development. The author emphasizes the negative effects of tourism on cultural preservation that can be prevented by applying the principles of sustainable development; at the same time, propose solutions to balance economic development and cultural preservation.

The governance of public sector infrastructure projects became an important topic of interest in the project, programme and portfolio management literature during the last decade. Today, it is becoming a central focus for policymakers seeking to ensure success in selecting, designing and implementing government-sponsored programme of multi-projects. Due to the multiple underlying risks and complexities, the governance of infrastructure programme constitutes a critical element in strategic planning in developing countries. This paper has analyzed infrastructure development programme and revealed shortcomings in the areas of appraisal, decision-making, quality assurance and stakeholder management. Approaches to remedy these shortcomings have been proposed.

Increasingly, architects are looking towards nature to design more sustainable, efficient cities to reduce the environmental impact of urban life. At the moment, plants are incorporated into urban design for conservation or aesthetic reasons. Here, I argue plants can be rationally designed into synthetic systems based on chemical and other functional traits to increase the stability of urban infrastructure, protect native biodiversity, and promote human health while meeting key UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This transdisciplinary review of research about international cooperation on social and environmental change builds the case for replacing Sustainable Development as the dominant framework for an era of increasing crises and disasters. The review is the output of an intentional exploration of recent studies in multiple subject areas, based on the authors’ decades of work in related fields since the Rio Earth Summit 30 years ago (rather than a keyword search of databases). It summarizes the research which documents failure to progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Consequently, the extensive scholarship critiquing the conceptual framework behind those ‘Global Goals’, and the economic ideology they arose from and support, is used to explain that failure. Although the pandemic set back the SDGs, it further revealed the inappropriate strategy behind those goals. This suggests the Global Goals constitute an ‘own-goal’ scored against people and nature. From this conclusion, alternative frameworks for organizing action on social and environmental issues become more important and are therefore briefly reviewed. It is argued that such a future framework must relate a new eco-social contract between citizen and state, and engage existing organizations and capabilities that are relevant to an increasingly disrupted world. Therefore, the case is made for considering an upgraded form of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) as an overarching framework. The proposed upgrades include detaching from economic ideologies, and recognizing that a wider metadisaster from climate chaos may reduce the future availability of external support. Therefore, self-reliant resilience and locally-led adaptation are identified as important to the future of DRM. Some options for professionals continuing to use the term sustainability, such as this journal, are discussed.

This paper provides an overview of current literature on community-led development initiatives in urban contexts, their role in addressing urban inequality, and the challenges they face. This study examines effective strategies of community-led initiatives, such as empowering communities, building partnerships, mobilizing resources, focusing on local needs, and participatory design methods. Case studies from around the world demonstrate how successful community-led development initiatives have been able to overcome obstacles to create more inclusive and equitable urban environments. Institutional support, including technical assistance, capacity building, and regulatory frameworks, are crucial for promoting the success and sustainability of these initiatives. Challenges to community-led initiatives include limited resources, capacity building needs, inadequate infrastructure, lack of institutional support, and lack of trust among community members. Therefore, the paper suggests that it is essential to address these challenges to enable the success of community-led development initiatives. Furthermore, this study recommends that future research should explore how emerging technologies and innovative approaches can effectively support community-led development initiatives and advance more just and sustainable urban development.

Land tenure security is important for achieving a number Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The purpose of this paper was to investigate variation in land tenure security across three districts located in different geographical regions of Uganda. Using a quantitative cross-sectional survey data collected in early 2019. The findings show that Kanungu district found in South-Western Uganda had significantly higher levels of land tenure security as compared to Nakasongola (Central) and Nwoya (Northern). Research findings have implications on further study and benchmarking land governance systems in Kanungu. Furthermore, they have implications on implementation of government and donor land titling or registration programs in terms of priority areas. They further sheds light on the importance of accounting for geographical context in land tenure studies.

Recent studies suggest that the developmental curves in adolescence, related to the development of executive functions, could be fitted to a non-linear trajectory of development with progressions and retrogressions. Therefore, the present study proposes to analyze the pattern of development in Perceptual Inhibition (PI), considering all stages of adolescence (early, middle, and late) in intervals of one year. To this aim, we worked with a sample of 275 participants between 10 and 25 years, who performed a joint visual and search task (to measure PI). We have fitted exGaussian functions to the probability distributions of the mean response time across the sample and performed a covariance analysis (ANCOVA). The results showed that the 10- to 13-year-old groups performed similarly in the task and differ from the 14- to 19-year-old participants. We found significant differences between the older group and all the rest of the groups. We discuss the important changes that can be observed in relation to the nonlinear trajectory of development that would show the PI during adolescence.

The DOF (DNA binding with one finger) family of plant-specific transcription factors (TF) was first identified in maize in 1995. Since then, DOF proteins have been shown to be present in the whole plant kingdom including the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The DOF TF family is characterised by a highly conserved DNA binding domain (DOF domain), consisting of a CX2C-X21-CX2C motif which is able to form a zinc finger structure. Early in the study of DOF proteins it became clear their relevance for seed biology. Indeed, the Prolamine Binding Factor (PBF), one of the first DOF proteins characterised, controls the endosperm-specific expression of the zein genes in maize. Subsequently, several DOF proteins from both monocots and dicots have been shown to be primarily involved in seed development, dormancy and germination, as well as in seedling development and other light-mediated processes. In the last two decades the molecular network underlying these processes have been outlined, and the main molecular players and their interactions have been identified. In this review, we will focus on the DOF TFs involved in these molecular networs, and on their interaction with other proteins.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of in ovo injection of L-arginine (L-Arg) into Ross broiler eggs at different embryonic developmental stages on their survival, hatchability, and body weight (BW). Additionally, we have analyzed the levels of serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT) and serum glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), protein expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs), also we have the determined micronuclei (MN) and nuclear abnormality (NA). Results showed that survival and hatching rates as well as body weight were increased on the 14th day incubation compared to 8th and 18th day incubation at lower concentration of L-Arg. Moreover, the levels of SGOT and SGPT were also significantly (P < 0.05) increased at 14th day incubation at the same concentration (100μg/μl/egg) of injection. In addition, IgM levels were increased on the 14th day incubation compared to other days. The protein expressions of HSP-47, HSP-60, and HSP-70 in the liver were significantly down-regulated whereas the expression of myogenin and MyoD were significantly up-regulated on the 14th day after incubation in treated with all different doses such as 100μg, 1000μg and 2500μg/μl/egg namely 3T1, 3T2 and 3T3 respectively. However, the treatment with low dose of L-Arg down-regulated expression levels of those proteins on the 14th day incubation. Histopathology of liver by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) straining showed that the majority of liver damage, specifically intracytoplasmic vacuoles, were observed in 3T1, 3T2, and 3T3. The minimum dose of 100 μg/ml/egg on the 14th day of incubation significantly prevented intracytoplasmic vacuole damages. These results demonstrate that in ovo administration of L-Arg at (100μg/μl/egg) may be an effective method to increase chick BW, hatch rate, increasing muscle growth related proteins and promote the immune response through increasing IgM on the 14th day of incubation period.

The existence of insecurity in a state necessitates immediate government attention and action as it poses a risk to human life and property and impedes socio-economic development. The study aims to evaluate insecurity and its impact on socio-economic development in Oyo state. It will also determine the major causes of insecurity problems and offer data that can help develop effective security strategies and policies. The study population consisted of residents who were randomly selected from the Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. The descriptive survey method was adopted and analyzed with the Chi-square technique. According to this research, there is a negative correlation between insecurity and the state's socio-economic development. The study recommends good governance and inclusive government policies to curb insecurity and ensure the state's socio-economic development.

The textile and clothing (T&C) industry is not usually viewed as an exemplar of sustainable de-velopment and the circular economy, as the industry has hitherto made its products in linear fashion, with relatively little recycling of the finished goods. This article examines the industry’s approach to the core sustainability concept and the circular economy in particular, through a re-view of the available academic literature, evidence from corporate sustainability reports and websites, and feedback from an online survey of industry professionals. The role of digital technology deployment in engendering sustainability and the circular economy in the industry is also explored. The study finds that whilst sustainability is now firmly embedded at the strategic level in the vast majority of companies studied, attitudes towards the circular economy remain fickle. The use of digital technologies in support of sustainability objectives is also limited at present, but the article concludes that the need to meet compliance requirements and new cus-tomer perceptions of sustainability will speed the transition to circular economy activities, facili-tated by greater exploitation of digital technologies. Building upon the research findings, existing models and an initial conceptual framework, a simple operational model for initiating such a transition for small-to-medium sized enterprises in the T&C industry is put forward.

There are few published studies assessing dental students' and faculty's perception regarding environmental sustainability in dentistry (ESD), its existence within the dental curricula, along with barriers and enablers for its integration. As far as the authors know, no published study looked into this in Saudi Arabia, and this is what the current study aims to explore. A cross-sectional survey using validated online questionnaires for dental students and faculty was carried out in 26 dental schools in Saudi Arabia. The validated questionnaire utilized 25 questions using Qualtrics (XM) software. Both descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were included in the data analysis. ESD content is not formally embedded within the dental curricula in all 26 included universities in Saudi Arabia. Although the majority of students and faculty members agreed or strongly agreed on the importance of ESD as a whole and the importance of teaching it, more than 82% and 81% of students and faculty, respectively, demonstrated a lack of basic knowledge concerning ESD. There is a high demand for incorporating ESD content in dental education in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this, resources and policy changes are necessary. A top-down approach is needed, including incorporating ESD into dental education standards, using evidence-based practices in revising infection control regulations and providing institutional support through training, materials, and incentives. National dental associations and governments should provide practical solutions and actively support dental professionals in implementing ESD.

In Kenya, millions of children have limited access to nurturing care. With the COVID-19 pandemic, it is anticipated that vulnerable children will bear the biggest brunt of the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic. This review aimed to deepen understanding of the effects of COVID-19 on nurturing care from conception to four years of age, a period where the care of children is often delivered through caregivers or other informal platforms. The review has drawn upon the empirical evidence from previous pandemics and epidemics, and anecdotal and emerging evidence from the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Multifactorial impacts fall into five key domains: direct health; health and nutrition systems, economic, social and child protection, and child development and early learning. The review proposes program and policy strategies to guide the re-orientation of nurturing care, prevent the detrimental effects associated with deteriorating nurturing care environments, and support the optimal development of the youngest and most vulnerable children. These include the provision of cash transfers and essential supplies for vulnerable households, and strengthening of community-based platforms for nurturing care. Further research on COVID-19 and the ability of children’s ecology to provide nurturing care is needed, as is further testing of new ideas.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a global strategy that aims to obtain a more equitable and just world. These objectives are organized in 17 SDGs, which are detailed in 169 targets. Different international institutions have emphasized education's relevance to developing citizens who contribute to the SDGs' achievement for 2030. However, a review focused on Physical Education exclusively has not been performed yet. Therefore, the objective of this work is double. First, to analyze and select the specific goals of the SDGs that can be implemented in the subject of Physical Education. And second, to relate these specific goals to the different models based on Physical Education practices. This review showed how three institutional documents have previously related sport, physical exercise and physical education to the specific goals of the SDGs. Based on the search done, this document selects those goals that could be integrated into the educational context through Physical Education. The bibliographic and narrative analysis carried out in this research shows that of the 169 specific goals proposed in the SDGs, only 24 could be worked on in Physical Education. In addition, after this previous analysis, a proposal for the relationship between the practice-based models and these 24 goals is presented. The contributions made in this paper will allow teachers to establish links between PE sessions and SDGs while raising awareness to develop students who contribute to a more sustainable world.

The Bologna Process and the European Higher Education area require the application of new active methodologies in the classroom that place the student at the center of his or her learning process. In the present work we analyze the application of a Service-Learning methodology in the context of a Final Degree Dissertation (FDD) in the degree in Environmental Sciences at the University of Extremadura (Spain). The project deals with an isolated Kichwa community in Ecuador and involves the development of alternative science education materials for the capacitation of in-service science teachers. This paper evaluates how an FDD carried out according to self-learning (SL) principles can help in the acquisition of so-called soft skills and how these can be focused in the promotion of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) knowledge and achievement. To this end, a qualitative study of the experience and a deep evaluation, followed by a final reflection, were carried out. According to the preliminary results, we can conclude that Higher Education should include SDGs in its teaching praxis and could do this successfully using the SL methodology.

The neural crest, a unique cell population originating from the primitive neural field, has a multi-systemic and structural contribution to vertebrate development. At the cephalic level, the neural crest generates most of the skeletal tissues encasing the developing forebrain and provides the prosencephalon with functional vasculature and meninges. Over the last decade, we have demonstrated that the cephalic neural crest (CNC) exerts an autonomous and prominent control on forebrain and sense organs development. The present paper reviews the primary mechanisms by which CNC can orchestrate vertebrate encephalization. Demonstrating the role of the CNC as an exogenous source of patterning for the forebrain provides a novel conceptual framework with profound implications for understanding neurodevelopment. From a biomedical standpoint, these data suggest that the spectrum of neurocristopathies is broader than expected and that some neurological disorders may stem from CNC dysfunctions.

Many children have suspected delayed language development and need extensive support from parents and the health care team. This study aimed to investigate suspected delayed language development and factors associated with suspected delayed language development among early childhood in Southern Thailand. Children aged 24 to 60 months were recruited as study samples using stratified random sampling conducted in 23 districts and simple randomized seven sections (425 children). Instruments comprised demographic data of the children and families, The preschool temperament questionnaire, and the Language Development Screening questionnaire using developmental surveillance and promotion manual. I was collecting data from July 2020 to January 2021. Data analysis used descriptive statistics and logistic regression. The results showed that 40.9 percent suspected delayed development. Daily screen time exceeding 2 hours per day (A.O.R. = 17.30, 95% CI: 7.35-40.72), and regarding a child's temperament, moderate-to-difficult temperament (A.O.R. = 9.56, 95% CI: 5.12-17.85) were significantly associated with a suspected delay of language development. The study suggested two-way communication and appropriate responses will help develop children's language.

Sustainable teacher development is the key to the success in the program of Master of Translation and Interpretation (MTI) but there was limited research on their current situation and needs in China. In this study 514 teachers from 32 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across China were investigated by means of quantitative questionnaires and online interviews concerning their current situation of career development and this research presented a comprehensive description of their age, academic qualifications and professional title. Also this study expounded the current situation and difficulties in academic research, teaching, translation practice and staff training. The findings were as follows. 1：In spite of reasonable age structure, approximately 50% of them had less than three years’ teaching experience in MTI. 2: There was a rise in the number of MTI teachers with doctoral degree but they found it hard to offer students professional guidance. 3: A large proportion of MTI teachers were in a slow stream of promotion in the title of professional post. 4: The proportion of the academic achievements related to translation in all the research projects and papers was small. 5: A majority of them worked as part-time translators. 6: About half of the teachers were not very satisfied with the effectiveness in their staff training program. Therefore it is suggested that more opportunities be provided for the MTI teachers to conduct translation practice in the professional sector and more researches be needed to thoroughly understand their requirement in terms of career development with a view to bridging the gap between content in the teacher training and their actual needs.

The rise of data science in biology stimulates interdisciplinary collaborations to address fundamental questions. Here, we report the outcome of the first SINFONIA symposium focused on revealing the mechanisms governing plant reproductive development across biological scales. The intricate and dynamic target networks of known regulators of flower development remain poorly understood. To analyze development from the genome to the final floral organ morphology, high-resolution data that capture spatiotemporal regulatory activities are necessary and require advanced computational methods for analysis and modeling. Moreover, frameworks to share data, practices and approaches that facilitate the combination of varied expertise to advance the field are called for. Training young researchers in interdisciplinary approaches and science communication offers the opportunity to establish a collaborative mindset to shape future research.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to the diverse range of neurodevelopmental disorders accompanying impairments in social interaction, difficulties in communication, and stereotyped or repetitive behaviors. Unlike the older term, autism, the newer term, ASD, better reflects the broad range of autistic symptoms and denotes a single diagnostic category of autism accompanied by numerous conditions. The pineal hormone melatonin is a well-known neuroprotectant and circadian entrainer. This hormone crosses the placenta and enters the fetal circulation, then conveys photoperiodic information to the fetus during pregnancy. These actions enable normal sleep patterns and circadian rhythms, followed by normal neurodevelopment. Melatonin also reduces oxidative stress, which is harmful to the central nervous system. Therefore, melatonin acts as a neuroprotectant and circadian entrainer, and may reduce the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD.

The development of knowledge graphs for water resources as a tool for studying sustainable regional development is a relevant task, as the increasing deterioration of water bodies affects the ecology, economy of the country, as well as the health of the population living near water bodies. Solving this problem requires the development of water resource monitoring methods based on semantic data analysis is required to detect and track sources of pollution and provide recommendations to support decision-making. This research proposes a method of semantic analysis for modeling knowledge graphs and constructing rules that enable the integration of data from heterogeneous sources, semantic compatibility, support for reasoning and inference, facilitate queries and search, and represent knowledge in the field of water resource monitoring. As a result, an ontology based on the SWRL language is created, which enables the expression of complex relationships and derivation of new knowledge, SSN for interaction between the ontology and sensor data, and Time Ontology, which models and analyzes information related to temporal aspects.After populating the ontology and establishing logical connections, SPARQL queries are implemented to retrieve new knowledge about water resources.

The 2030 Agenda sets out seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The educational goal is to promote the education of citizens on sustainable development, among other things. Educating today's digital citizens on sustainability means training them for justice and social activism, commitment and political engagement. However, research into the subject shows a lack of consistency in the education of university students. This paper presents a study of students of Education, on education on sustainability through the practice of active and critical digital citizenship. A quasi-experimental method was used to learn about the behaviours of digital citizens, and intervention was carried out by means of an SDG-focused workshop and observation of the final level of commitment. The results show a positive level of commitment and digital activism around content related to sustainable development, which can be addressed from the university syllabus in a cross-curricular way.

(1) In an era where sustainable behavior is increasingly crucial, understanding the discrepancy between individuals' sustainability-oriented values and their actual behaviors, known as the inner-outer gap, is vital. This study explores the potential of the Tripartite Structure of Sustainability (TSS) framework to address this gap within the context of sustainable education. By reviewing literature from the databases APA, ERIC, and Web of Science, we systematically examined factors influencing sustainable actions. (2) Employing a qualitative content analysis approach, we analyzed 56 articles over a 15-year period, identifying 83 factors that either bridge or reinforce the inner-outer gap. These factors were categorized within the TSS framework, which segments sustainability-oriented actions into individual, social, and self-transcendent domains, alongside their activation points: stable, situational, or automated. (3) Our analysis revealed that self-focused factors often reinforce the gap, suggesting a hindrance to sustainable behavior. Conversely, self-transcendent factors consistently bridged the gap, promoting sustainability. Social factors showed variable impacts based on the ethical and sustainable context they were placed in, suggesting that the social environment's orientation significantly influences sustainable behavior. (4) The study concludes that the TSS framework offers a promising approach to advancing sustainability in education by facilitating a paradigm shift towards holistic and interconnected perspectives. This shift is critical for fostering sustainable behaviors, thereby contributing to the field of educational psychology and offering practical implications for educators aiming to nurture a sustainable future.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require collaboration among academia, indus-try, citizens, public administration and politics. Analysis and monitoring of the SDGs is a deci-sive step in evaluating possible corrective actions. In this regard, this paper assesses the perfor-mance of Italian regions in 2021 compared to the values recorded in 2020. An online survey among academics aims to support Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) choices, which aims to calculate a sustainability score for Italian regions. The results, based on 27 targets, show that the northern regions show better performance, with the province of Trento topping the list. This is followed by Valle d'Aosta and the province of Bolzano, confirming the trio that emerged in the previous year. A very interesting fact is the growth of the central regions, which overall tend to reach a value close to that of the northern regions. In particular, Toscana, Marche and Lazio stand out for a good performance. It is also confirmed that the southern regions occupy the last places in the ranking with the only excep-tion being Abruzzo. The implications of this paper move toward a pragmatic approach that goes beyond the ideological in order to arrive at solutions and projects that are viewed with sharing by stake-holders. There is a need to foster collaboration between different territorial realities in order to achieve a social community in which young people have a role in which they can grow and share their ideas. Made in Italy is a target on which to enhance the SDGs to help make the Medi-terranean area a crossroads of the future global economy.