The prospects of digital infrastructure in promoting rural economic growth and development are by and large immense. The paper found that rural development is considerably important for economic development and for achievement of sustainable livelihoods that increases people’s ability to achieve good health and wellbeing that enable the achievement of sustainable development. The paper found that digital imbalance and digital illiteracy in the rural areas hinder implementation of digital infrastructure to lead to rural economic growth. Digital infrastructure is the source of economic opportunities that enables local people in the rural areas to be more creative in achieving development success. It enables them to have a unique sense of place and fashioning of vibrant economic and financial opportunities that ensure the achievement of sustainable rural economic development. However, the paper found that the application of digital infrastructure to South Africa’s rural areas in the bid to promote rural economic growth has been hindered by factors like the digital divide, financial constraints, digital illiteracy and the failure to own a smart phone. These factors hinder digital infrastructure from leading to sustainable rural economic development and growth. The paper used secondary data gathered from existing literature. The use of qualitative research methodology and document and content analysis techniques became vital in the process of collecting and analyzing collected data.

To study the environment of the Kipushi mining locality (LMK), the evolution of its landscape was observed using Landsat images from 2000 to 2020. The evolution of the landscape was generally modified by the unplanned expansion of human settlements, agricultural areas, associated with the increase in firewood collection, carbonization, and exploitation of quarry materials. The problem is that this area has never benefited from change detection studies and the LMK area is very heterogeneous. The objective of the study is to evaluate the performance of classification algorithms and apply change detection to highlight the degradation of the LMK. The first approach concerned the classifications based on the stacking of the analyzed Landsat image bands of 2000 and 2020. And the second method performed the classifications on neo-images derived from concatenations of the spectral indices: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Building Index (NDBI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). In both cases, the study comparatively examined the performance of five variants of classification algorithms, namely, Maximum Likelihood (ML), Minimum Distance (MD), Neural Network (NN), Parallelepiped (Para) and Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM). The results of the controlled classifications on the stacking of Landsat image bands from 2000 and 2020 were less consistent than those obtained with the index concatenation approach. The Para and DM classification algorithms were less efficient. With their respective Kappa scores ranging from 0.27 (2000 image) to 0.43 (2020 image) for Para and from 0.64 (2000 image) to 0.84 (2020 image) for DM. The results of the SAM classifier were satisfactory for the Kappa score of 0.83 (2000) and 0.88 (2020). The ML and NN were more suitable for the study area. Their respective Kappa scores ranged between 0.91 (image 2000) and 0.99 (image 2020) for the LM algorithm and between 0.95 (image 2000) and 0.96 (image 2020) for the NN algorithm.

This study investigates the willingness of Indonesian consumers, particularly in West Java, to pay for green products by applying and expanding the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). It examines how perceived green product value and willingness to pay premiums influence consumer intentions and behavior toward green purchases. The research highlights the gap between consumers’ willingness to pay for environmentally friendly products and the actual sales of such products. By incorporating perceived value and willingness to pay into the TPB framework, the study aims to find what factors that can address the gap particularly in a developing country context to contribute to shaping a pro-environmental socio-cultural community in Indonesia and mitigates country’s significant environmental challenges. In the context of 251 young consumers in Indonesia, this study finds that subjective norms do not significantly influence purchase intentions. However, attitudes and behavioral controls do effectively encourage green behavior, suggesting that societal norms for green behavior may not be fully established. In addition, while willingness to pay a premium and perceived value of green purchases can influence green behavior, consumers are generally reluctant to pay higher prices for environmentally friendly products.

Inflammation of the lungs, called pneumonia, is a disease characterized by inflammation of the air sacs that interfere with the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. It is caused by a variety of infectious organisms, including viruses, bacteria, fungus, and parasites. Pneumonia is more common in people who have pre-existing lung diseases or compromised immune systems, and it primarily affects small children and the elderly. Diagnosis of pneumonia can be difficult, especially when relying on medical imaging, because symptoms may not be immediately apparent. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have recently shown potential in medical imaging applications. A CNN-based deep learning model is being built as part of ongoing research to aid in the detection of pneumonia using chest X-ray images. The dataset used for training and evaluation includes images of people with normal lung conditions as well as photos of people with pneumonia. Various preprocessing procedures, such as data augmentation, normalization, and scaling, were used to improve the accuracy of pneumonia diagnosis and extract significant features. In this study, a framework for deep learning with four pre-trained CNN models—InceptionNet, ResNet, VGG16, and DenseNet—was used. To take use of its key advantages, transfer learning utilizing DenseNet was used. During training, the loss function was minimized using the Adam optimizer. The suggested approach seeks to improve early diagnosis and enable fast intervention for pneumonia cases by leveraging the advantages of several CNN models. The outcomes show that CNN-based deep learning models may successfully diagnose pneumonia in chest X-ray pictures.

Optimizing Storage Location Assignment (SLA) is essential for improving warehouse operations, reducing operational costs, travel distances and picking times. The effectiveness of the optimization process should be evaluated. This study introduces a novel, generalized objective function tailored to optimize SLA through integration with a Genetic Algorithm. The method incorporates key parameters such as item order frequency, storage grouping, and proximity of items frequently ordered together. Using simulation tools, this research models a picker-to-part system in a warehouse environment characterized by complex storage constraints, varying item demands and family-grouping criteria. The study explores four scenarios with distinct parameter weightings to analyze their impact on SLA. Contrary to other research that focuses on frequency-based assignment, this article presents a novel framework for designing SLA using key parameters. The study proves that it is advantageous to deviate from a frequency-based assignment, as considering other key parameters to determine the layout can lead to more favorable operations. The findings reveal that adjusting the parameter weightings enables effective SLA customization based on warehouse operational characteristics. Scenario-based analyses demonstrated significant reductions in travel distances during order picking tasks, particularly in scenarios prioritizing ordered-together proximity and group storage. Visual layouts and picking route evaluations highlighted the benefits of balancing frequency-based arrangements with grouping strategies. The study validates the utility of a tailored generalized objective function for SLA optimization. Scenario-based evaluations underscore the importance of fine-tuning SLA strategies to align with specific operational demands, paving the way for more efficient order picking and overall warehouse management.