The purpose of this study was to assess rural students’ computational thinking abilities. The following proofs were observed: (1) Students’ abstraction affected algorithmic thinking skills; (2) Students’ decomposition influenced algorithmic thinking skills; (3) Students’ abstraction impacted evaluation skills; (4) Students’ algorithmic thinking affected evaluation skills; (5) Students’ abstraction impacted generalization skills; (6) Students’ decomposition impacted generalization skills; (7) Students’ evaluation affected generalization skills. Gender differences were observed in the relationship among the computational thinking factors of junior high school students. This included the abstraction-generalization skills; evaluation-generalization skills; and decomposition-generalization skills relationships, which were moderated by the gender of the students. 258 valid surveys were collected, and they were utilized in the study. Conducting the descriptive, reliability, and validity analyses used SPSS software, and the structural equation modeling (SEM) was also conducted through Smart PLS software to assess the hypothetical relationships. There were gender disparities in the correlation among computational thinking components of the junior high school students’ studying in rural areas. Research has shown that male and female students may have different abstractions, evaluations, and generalizations related to computational thinking, with females being more strongly associated than males in non-programming learning contexts. These results are expected to provide relevant information in subsequent analyses and implement a computational thinking curriculum to overcome the still-existing gender gaps and promote computational thinking skills.

In this study, we explore the impact of contemporary bank run incidents on stock market performance, taking into consideration insured deposit concentration. Specifically, we use data from the recent downfall of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). By employing event study methods with the mean-adjusted return model and market models, we evaluate the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs). Our findings reveal a substantial negative CAR for all the listed companies in our sample, suggesting that the SVB crisis adversely affected stock returns. Further analysis shows an even more pronounced effect on the banking sector and that banks with a high concentration of insured deposits experienced economically and statistically less negative CARs. We also find that the response by the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and other agencies—aimed at fully safeguard all depositors—led a rebound in CARs. Our results highlight the importance of deposit insurance policy and regulatory responses in protecting the financial system during panic events.

This paper explores how compassion can be defined as a transformative moral technology through analysis of Martha Nussbaum’s idea. Nussbaum contends that compassion goes beyond just feeling pain for others’ suffering; it also involves acknowledging the severity of suffering, understanding that it is not solely the victim’s fault, and recognizing the suffering individual as one of our most important goals and projects. Through a literature review that considers reductive explanations, we establish that compassion encompasses cognitive, affective, and conative capacities that are crucial for moral reasoning, knowledge, and judgment, all stemming from the experience of human suffering. These capacities of cognition, affection, and conation are supported by the system of reasoning and moral perspective known as techne, episteme, and oikeiosis as systems of reasoning and morality perspective. We argue that compassion is more than just an emotion or feeling, it is catalyst for moral action, as its essence lies in “suffering with; suffering together.”

A smart city focuses on enhancing and interconnecting facilities and services through digital technology to offer convenient services for both people and businesses. The basic infrastructure of smart cities consists of modern technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and artificial intelligence. These urban areas utilize different networks, such as the Internet and IoT, to share real-time information, improving convenience for the inhabitants. However, the reliance of smart cities on modern technologies exposes them to a range of organized, diverse, and sophisticated cyber threats. Therefore, prioritizing cybersecurity awareness and implementing appropriate measures and solutions are essential to protect the privacy and security of citizens. This study aims to identify cyber threats and their impact on smart cities, as well as the methods and measures required for key areas such as smart government, smart healthcare, smart mobility, smart environment, smart economy, smart living, and smart people. Furthermore, this study seeks to evaluate previous research in this field, establish necessary policies to mitigate these threats, and propose an appropriate model for the infrastructure associated with IT networks in smart cities.

Technological innovation allows nations to produce sophisticated products more efficiently and at higher quality to increase exports. Countries that aim to produce and export sophisticated products can improve their economic complexity and lead to the country’s economic development. Hence, the study investigates the impact of technological innovation on economic complexity in South Africa. Technological innovation, exports, and manufactured products were used as variables to examine South Africa’s economic complexity index. The study employed the ARDL method to determine the relationship among the variables. The ARDL F-bounds test reflected the long-run cointegration among the selected variables. The study produced long-run positive estimates of technological innovation, exports, and manufactured products on economic complexity, however, manufactured products and exports were insignificant. Granger causality indicated unidirectional causality on economic complexity to manufactured products, exports to technological innovation, and a bi-directional causal effect from exports to economic complexity and technological innovation to economic complexity. The study recommends that South Africa focus on innovation, create more diversified and sophisticated products and processes, and promote more manufacturing firms, particularly Agri-processed products.

Smart cities incorporate fundamental aspects such as sustainability and citizens’ well-being. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the feasibility and effectiveness of the implementation of an evaluation model of the transformation processes towards smart cities as a strategy to improve the state of the transformation processes in Lima, Peru. The research is descriptive and basic. A questionnaire was administered to 80 municipal officials in Lima, focusing on the variable “smart cities evaluation model”, covering three key dimensions: open data, smart public transport and energy efficiency, with a total of 15 questions and the variable “state of the transformation processes”, analysed through the dimensions of educational level of the population and municipal budget, with 10 questions. The results revealed that 48% expressed a gap in terms of the availability and quality of accessible information. 53% argued that stronger energy conservation and sustainability strategies need to be implemented. In addition, 53% felt that the education level needs to focus on improving local education systems. In conclusion, transformation processes drive economic, social and environmental development, improving the quality of life and promoting equality among citizens. This study contributes to a broader understanding of how to address these challenges in order to build more sustainable and liveable cities in the future.