In marginalized ecosystem-dependent rural communities, access to ecosystem services plays a crucial role in achieving sustainable livelihoods. This study was conducted to find out the influence of various livelihood capital components on the access mechanism for forest-based Provisioning Services (PS) in some selected villages of the Gosaba Block on the fringes of the Sundarban. The contribution of the livelihood capitals to gain access to Provisioning Services (PS) was identified using factor analysis on 160 households, selected through cluster random sampling. The sustainability levels of livelihood capitals were analyzed using the Prescott-Allen method (2001). The natural, financial, social, and physical capitals were significantly below average, while the human capital was close to average. Enhancement of human, physical, financial, and social capital, ease in issuing Biometric Fisherman cards for entering forests, flexibility in borrowing loans, and ecotourism by involving local villagers must be encouraged to enhance forest-based provisioning services in the near future.

Loans are a critical transmission channel for commercial banks as well as an important revenue source. Macroeconomic factors are not within the control of commercial banks, however, select factors are observed to have a direct impact on lending behaviour in studies around the world. This study examined the relationship between macroeconomic variables and the lending behaviour of banks in South Africa for the period ranging from 2001 to 2022. Quarterly time series data was employed using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL). The empirical results of the paper revealed that there is a long-run relationship between the repurchase rate (repo rate), inflation, the real effective exchange rate (REER) and lending behaviour in South Africa. The REER and inflation were both found to have a positive relationship, whilst the repo rate had a negative relationship. In addition, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the activity rate and sovereign credit rating (SCR) changes returned insignificant results. Overall, these findings show that select macroeconomic factors do influence lending behaviour in South Africa. Furthermore, the results suggest that monetary policy decisions have a direct influential effect on lending and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has implemented their policies effectively.

This quasi-experimental study examined the effect of a mechanics course delivered through a Learning Management System (LMS) on the creativity of prospective physics teachers at a teacher training college in Mataram, Indonesia. The study was conducted in the post-pandemic era. Using a pretest-posttest one-group design, the researchers evaluated changes in creativity across three domains: figural, numeric, and verbal. The results showed significant improvements in overall creativity, with the most critical gains observed in the figural domain. Further analysis revealed that fluency was the creative indicator with the most enhancement. In contrast, other indicators displayed varying degrees of improvement. These findings highlight the potential of LMS-based instruction in fostering creativity among future physics educators, particularly in the figural, numeric, and verbal domains. This study adds to the growing body of evidence supporting technology integration into teacher education, especially during times of crisis. Future research should explore more targeted instructional strategies within LMS environments and utilize comprehensive creativity assessment methods further to enhance creative learning experiences for prospective physics teachers.

Freshwater problems in coastal areas include the process of salt intrusion which occurs due to decreasing groundwater levels below sea level which can cause an increase in salt levels in groundwater so that the water cannot be used for water purposes, human consumption and agricultural needs. The main objective of this research is to implementation of RWH to fulfill clean water needs in tropical coastal area in Tanah Merah Village, Indragiri Hilir Regency, with the aim of providing clean water to coastal communities. The approach method used based on fuzzy logic (FL). The model input data includes the effective area of the house’s roof, annual rainfall, roof runoff coefficient, and water consumption based on the number of families. The BWS III Sumatera provided the rainfall data for this research, which was collected from the Keritang rainfall monitoring station during 2015 and 2021. The research findings show that FL based on household scale RWH technology is used to supply clean water in tropical coastal areas that the largest rainwater contribution for the 144 m² house type for the number of residents in a house of four people with a tank capacity of 29 m² is 99.45%.

This study is based on the theory of planned behaviour, and its aim is to understand the impact of doctoral pursuit intention on the doctoral preparatory behaviour of female teachers in independent colleges in China, as well as to determine the moderating effect of perceived risk between doctoral pursuit intention and doctoral preparatory behaviour. The participants in the study were female teachers from independent colleges in China, who were recruited between February and March 2024 based on convenience sampling. 776 valid questionnaires were obtained, and the data were analyzed using a hierarchical regression method. According to the results, a doctoral pursuit intention has a significant and positive predictive effect on doctoral preparatory behaviour, while the perceived risk has a significant and negative moderating effect between doctoral pursuit intention and doctoral preparatory behaviour. This indicates that female teachers with high doctoral pursuit intention more actively prepare to pursue a doctoral degree when the perceived risk is low, whereas the doctoral preparatory behaviour of those with high perceived risk shows a limited increase as their doctoral pursuit intention increases. Therefore, female teachers’ pursuit of a doctoral degree should be supported on an individual basis and analysed within the broader context of the transformation of independent colleges.