The linkages between adequate service delivery and sustainable development have been given a little academic attention in the South Africa’s local municipalities. For this reason, the achievement of sustainable development has been difficult which has culminated in the occurrence of service delivery protests. These service delivery protests have posed critical threats to social security thus affecting the possibility to achieve sustainable development in South Africa. the paper findings showed that the delivery of inadequate services to the citizens is triggered by the failure to equally include citizens in the process. One of the threats that the paper found is the fact that these service delivery protests have become a major issue and any move to solve them without citizen participation has been unsuccessful. The paper findings also showed that that the lack of adequate service delivery to the citizens causes human insecurities which in turn affect the achievement of sustainable development. This is because the occurrence of the service delivery protests deteriorates national economic growth and human growth. They affect foreign investors and international tourists by instilling fear in them and yet they are contributors to sustainable economic growth that leads to sustainable development. The findings of this paper also presented that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies can increase citizen participation during service delivery. It is through the use of citizen participation that openness, transparency, accountability, and representation principles that promote the delivery of adequate services are possible. The paper found that using AI technologies would also foster trust between the service provider and service receiver needed for delivering adequate services, thus achieve sustainable development in South Africa.

Global CO₂ emissions pose a serious threat of climate change for high-growth countries, requiring increased efforts to preserve the environment and meet growing economic needs through the use of renewable energies. This research significantly enhances the current literature by filling a void and differentiating between short-term and long-term impacts across economic growth, renewable energy consumption, energy intensity, and CO₂ emissions in BRIC countries from 2002 to 2019. In contrast to approaches that analyze global effects, this study’s focus on short and long-term effects offers a more dependable insight into energy and environmental research. The empirical results confirmed that the effect of economic growth on CO₂ emissions is positive both in the short and long term. Moreover, the effect of energy consumption is negative in the short term and positive in the long term. The effect of energy intensity is positive in the short term and negative in the long term. Accordingly, policy recommendations must be adopted to ensure that these economies respond to the notion of sustainable development and the relationship with the environment. BRIC countries must strengthen their industries in the long term in favor of the use of renewable energies by introducing innovation and technology. These economies face the challenge of a transition to renewable energy sources by creating a new energy and industrial sector environment that is more environmentally friendly atmosphere.

Increasingly, U.S. cities are focusing on transit-oriented development (TOD) policies to expand the stock of higher-density, mixed-use development near public transit stations within the context of a transit corridor and, in most cases, a regional metropolis. A TOD zone relies on a regulatory and institutional environment, public and private participation and investment, and development incentives to create vibrant, people-oriented communities and mobility options and to support business development. TODs provide local governments with more tax revenues due to increased property values (and, as applicable, income and sales tax revenues), but most planning for TODs ignores the non-transit infrastructure costs of increasing development density. This study focused on determining the water and sewer infrastructure costs for TOD zones along a rail line in southeast Florida. The finding was that millions of dollars in funds are needed to meet those water and sewer needs and that few are currently planned as a part of community capital improvement programs.

Intellectual capital is the sum of whatever organizational resources contribute to the value and competitiveness of a company. Though some metrics have been developed for measuring individual and collective capabilities, from a human resources point of view, it is difficult to translate the concept of intellectual capital" into, for example, financial terms. To better understand the field, the aim of this study is to draw a thematic analysis on the relations between intellectual capital and human resources. We provide an overview of publications and their courses on this subject. We accessed two widely used databases (Scopus and Web of Science) to produce the review. We set a period of 26 years, marked by the subject's theme entry. In order to handle duplicates, we used RStudio Software, and to manage the data, we used the Bibliometrix package tools (biblioshiny and thematic map). Our analysis revealed how intellectual capital and human resources are important for generating value in organizations. Some results explore innovative ways of managing these resources, such as integrating technological, commercial, organizational, and cultural aspects, using dynamic systems modeling, investing in long-term strategies and in education and training, and studying the relationship between green intellectual capital and green human resources management.

When power is exercised, it results in political behavior in organizations. Excessively held organizational politics can hurt an organization and its members though some consider wisely used political behavior as positive. This study was conducted at Wolaita Sodo Polytechnic College (WSPTC) to investigate the effect of power and political dynamism on employee job satisfaction. Cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data from stratified, randomly selected 146 informants. The Rahim Leader Power Inventory (RLPI), Interpersonal Power Inventory (IPI), Perception of Organizational Politics (POP), and Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) were employed to collect data. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were made using statistical packages (SPSS version 23). The findings revealed that when managers legitimate, coercive, and reward power bases are higher, then organizational politics becomes higher. Power concentration at higher positions results in increased organizational politics than when it was shared. Regression analysis uncovered that 47% (R-squared 0.468) of variations in job satisfaction were explained by POP and power dynamics. Hence, it is recommended that having power sharing, empowering subordinates, and moderate political maneuvering in the use of power and politics will be helpful in maintaining constructive relationships and job satisfaction.

Tomato is one of the major solanaceous vegetables, which has a unique place in the global vegetable market. Instead of being a high-value crop, there is still a need to do improvement in its potential against various biotic and abiotic stressors that adequately demolish its real yield. Alternaria solani (causing early blight disease) is designated as one of the fatal organisms that may reduce tomato crop yield by up to 80%. There were lots of methods, viz., chemical, cultural and biological suggested to overcome it. However, chemical strategies are much in vogue, but they have several negative consequences for human health and the ecosystem. Enlightening this issue, the efficacy of various treatments, viz., chemical fungicides (Amistar Top^®, Nativo^®, and Contaf^®), biochar and fungal bioagent (Trichoderma viride) was assessed under both in vivo and in vitro conditions. Induced resistance is mediated by several regulating pathways, like salicylic acid and jasmonic acid. These mediating pathways manipulate different physiological processes like growth and development, stress tolerance, and defence mechanisms of the plant. The assessment of results revealed that among all treatments biochar at 3.25% by weight consistently displayed remarkable effectiveness against the early blight infection by triggering resistance and improving the overall performance of tomato plants. This result is attributed to improved soil health, fastening mineralization as well as absorption processes, and boosting the plant’s immunity with the use of a higher concentration of biochar. Hence, it could be recommended for the overall improvement of tomato crop and its sustainability.