"Kappa", as a late work of Ryunosuke Wasagawa, contains the strong feelings of Ryusuke Wasagawa's criticism of society, Sukekawa depicts a bizarre and fantasy Kappa country world, using the art of mapping, showing the darkness of Japanese society and the ugly side of society, this article analyzes the world-weary thoughts contained in the story through the storyline in the novel "Kappa" and the main characters in the story.

Despite the surge of publication of chatbots in the recent years in the field of education, we have little to know how this area has been researched so far, and the metrics of this type of research is still not known. To address such gap, this article offers a descriptive bibliometric study of chatbot research in education, aiming at presenting bibliometric analysis on articles on chatbots in education that were published in journals indexed in the Web of Science (WOS) database specifically Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) between 2016 and 2023. Descriptive bibliometric analysis was used to examine the data gathered from the chosen publications. including the annual number of articles and citations, the most productive author, countries with the highest publication output, productive affiliations, funding organizations, and publication sources. The bulk of the articles on chatbots in education, according to our dataset, were published between 2016 and 2023. The United States of America tops the list of countries regarding research productivity. The United Kingdom and China were ranked as most second and third productive countries, in terms of publication outputs. “Luke Kutszik Fryer emerged as the most productive author in this research domain in terms of the number of publications.” The University of Hong Kong had the highest number of publications among affiliations, indicating their significant contribution to the field. Additionally, the journal “Computers in Human Behavior” stood out with the highest number of publications per year, highlighting its relevance in publishing research on chatbots in education. This research offers valuable insights and a roadmap for prospective researchers, pinpointing critical areas where success can be attained in the study of chatbots in education.

This article delves into the application of blockchain technology in enhancing intellectual property (IP) protection within the e-commerce sector, providing a comprehensive analysis of its future prospects. By examining the core characteristics and working principles of blockchain, the paper reveals the unique advantages it offers in strengthening IP protection for e-commerce. The article elaborates on how blockchain’s features of decentralization, data immutability, and timestamping contribute to a secure, transparent, and efficient IP protection mechanism in the e-commerce field. Furthermore, the paper discusses the practical application of blockchain technology in IP registration, management, transaction, and rights protection, highlighting its significant impact on security traceability, transaction cost reduction, and efficiency improvement. Lastly, the article anticipates the future role of blockchain technology in IP protection in e-commerce and believes that with continued technological advancements and enhanced policy support, blockchain will play an increasingly pivotal role in this domain. The paper also proposes potential challenges and solutions that require attention, aiming to foster the healthy and sustainable development of blockchain technology.

Although the problems created by exceeding Earth’s carrying capacity are real, a too-small population also creates problems. The convergence of a nation’s population into small areas (i.e., cities) via processes such as urbanization can accelerate the evolution of a more advanced economy by promoting new divisions of labor and the evolution of new industries. The degree to which population density contributes to this evolution remains unclear. To provide insights into whether an optimal “threshold” population exists, we quantified the relationships between population density and economic development using threshold regression model based on the panel data for 295 Chinese cities from 2007 to 2019. We found that when the population density of the whole city (urban and rural areas combined) exceeded 866 km⁻², the impact of industrial upgrading on the economy decreased; however, when the population density exceeded 15,131 km⁻² in the urban part of the cities, the impact of industrial upgrading increased. Moreover, it appears that different regions in China may have different population density thresholds. Our results provide important insights into urban economic evolution, while also supporting the development of more effective population policies.

The paper at hand analyses the principal-agent relationship, where comparative perspective between principals’ (municipalities) and agents’ (public utility providers) in the field of water and wastewater management is scrutinized. The goal of the paper is twofold: firstly, to present empirical results validating principal-agent relationships that emerged due to the reorganization process of public enterprises; secondly, to highlight the similarities and differences between the perspectives of principals and agents regarding motives, advantages and disadvantages, and price-setting in relation to the reorganization process. The empirical research is based on the primary data collected through two self-prepared and structured online questionnaires—one for municipalities, and the other for public utility providers. The results reveal similarities between public enterprises and municipalities in motivating factors for full municipal ownership. However, differences are seen among the advantages of the reorganization process. Price-setting by public utilities is recognized as a motivating mechanism for agents.

This research can help improve public health and ensure the sustainable transformation of the food system. This study aims to analyze the success of Regional Food Security development activities through Community Empowerment with the food independent village program carried out by regional command units in the ranks of Korem 063/SGJ (Sunan Gunung Jati). This study uses qualitative descriptive with comparative methods. Population includes villages that have received the food independent village program in West Java (Kuningan, Cirebon, Majalengka, and Cirebon City) between 2009 and 2022. The research sample consisted of 4 villages selected from each of the districts/cities. The research informants totalled 37 people, consisting of stakeholders from the Korem 063/Sunan Gunung Jati Unit and its staff, the Food Security Service, village heads, affinity groups or farmers, and community leaders in the research area. The results of the study indicate that the success and failure in the implementation of the food independent village program by affinity groups and the food security development activity program by Satkowil have an effect on food availability, food distribution and food consumption. This research is expected to provide a comprehensive overview of the implementation of the food independent village program and food security development activities by regional command units in West Java.