As digital technologies continue to shape the economy, countries are faced with increasing scrutiny in the use of digital transformation to aid productivity and improve performance. In South Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated Small and medium-sized businesses’ (SMEs’) uptake of digital technologies, as many businesses had to shift their operations online and adopt new digital tools and technologies to solve the challenges posed by the pandemic. This has led to an increased focus on digital transformation mechanisms among South African firms. Therefore, the study examines the effect of digital transformation on the productivity of firms using cross-sectional data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) (2020). The survey was based on firms and is a representative sample of the private sector in the South African economy and covers a wide variety of business environment themes, such as infrastructure, competitiveness, access to finance, and performance indicators. We found that digital transformation improved productivity of South African firms. Furthermore, empirical findings are reassuring robust to the IV-2SLS and quantile regression model, size of business, sectoral and provincial analysis. Finally, we recommend that policy makers should develop and implement initiatives to improve digital infrastructure, including high-speed internet access and reliable connectivity, especially in rural and underserved areas.

The significance of remittances to the Vietnamese economy necessitates investigating how they affect the value of the Vietnamese currency and other macroeconomic factors. Macroeconomic articles struggle to discover their impact on economic development, but measured remittances by migrant workers have recently soared. There is no academic study that has examined this phenomenon in Vietnam. This study uses wavelet frameworks to analyze the lead-lag nexus between exchange rates, remittances, and economic growth in Vietnam in time-frequency domains from 1995 to 2020. Overall, we find that: (i) remittances enhance economic growth in the short and medium run; (ii) exchange rates boost remittances in the short and medium run; (iii) exchange rates promote GDP in all frequency and time domains. Moreover, the partial wavelet coherence and multiple wavelet coherence frameworks also offered evidence supporting the wavelet coherence approach. More importantly, the outcomes of wavelet-based Granger causality unveil that there is two-way causality between the selected indicators, which means that all the indicators can predict each other at different frequencies. Our empirical results provide meaningful information for market participants and policymakers.

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated a paradigm shift in education, marked by an increasing reliance on technology and virtual platforms. This study delves into the post-pandemic landscape of Islamic higher education at the State Islamic Institute of Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, focusing on students’ readiness, attitudes, and interests toward sustained engagement with e-learning. A cohort of 300 students across all semesters of Islamic Education partook in the investigation. Utilising Structural Equation Modelling, the study gauged students’ preparedness, perceptions, and inclinations toward online learning. Results indicate a general readiness among students for online learning, with a pivotal role attributed to technological devices and internet connectivity. Positive attitudes toward online learning were prevalent, with flexibility and accessibility emerging as significant advantages. Moreover, students showed keen interest in online learning, valuing its technological advancements, affordability, and intellectually challenging nature. These findings highlight the digital transformation of traditional teaching methods among Islamic higher education students, who are typically known for their emphasis on direct interaction in teaching and learning. Their receptivity to innovative learning modalities and adaptability to the digital era’s difficulties highlight the need for educational institutions to leverage this enthusiasm. Comprehensive online learning platforms, robust technological support, and a conducive learning environment are advocated to empower Islamic higher education students in navigating the digital landscape and perpetuating their pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment.

A metaverse is an environment where humans interact socially and economically as avatars in cyberspace, which acts as a metaphor for the real world but without its physical or economic limitations. Many people use this new technology to connect with others, exchange content or discover new hobbies. Unlike other virtual worlds, the metaverse offers an online world that can be shaped. For the ports of the Spanish port system, it is intended to determine the new virtual port ecosystem that could be developed in the short term through an affinity diagram, which is a diagram that is used for the organization of ideas provided by a group on a complex problem that is held in a specific area, in this case reaching meta ports in the port system. The main conclusion is that to advance on this concept the new operating models and customers and services, are the blocks where the greatest efforts will have to be made.

Information transparency is a basic principle of good governance that few studies in the literature have thoroughly examined. Riau Province in particular has a high record of land and forest conflicts that needs urgent response, yet environmental policies have mostly been scrutinized for its resource extraction and regulation aspects, not their aspect of information transparency. Low proactive disclosure of information from local governments is a recurring issue in Riau Province, so FITRA Riau initiated the Public Information Openness Index (IKIP) to cover the Riau Province and 12 regencies/cities. To address this research gap of governmental public bodies’ information transparency, this study conducted the novel substantive approach critical review to see the extent of local government’s transparency regarding their budgeting for one of Riau’s most prevalent issues, namely land and forest governance (TKHL). From March to September 2019, this study used a triangulation of data collected from information access tests, IKIP evaluation, and focus group discussion involving the Riau Information Commission, the Information Management and Documentation Officers (PPID) of the 12 regencies, and the Governor of Riau Province. After analyzing the four aspects of regulation, institution, budget, and TKHL information, results determined that the most open region in Riau Province is Indragiri Hulu, and the least open region is Kuantan Singingi. Information transparency is still limited in procedural terms, in which all regions have more or less fulfilled the administrative regulation demands but the substance of the public information across all aspects is too generic to truly inform the public of the regions’ TKHL.

Scientists have harnessed the diverse capabilities of nanofluids to solve a variety of engineering and scientific problems due to high-temperature predictions. The contribution of nanoparticles is often discussed in thermal devices, chemical reactions, automobile engines, fusion processes, energy results, and many industrial systems based on unique heat transfer results. Examining bioconvection in non-Newtonian nanofluids reveals diverse applications in advanced fields such as biotechnology, biomechanics, microbiology, computational biology, and medicine. This study investigates the enhancement of heat transfer with the impact of magnetic forces on a linearly stretched surface, examining the two-dimensional Darcy-Forchheimer flow of nanofluids based on blood. The research explores the influence of velocity, temperature, concentration, and microorganism profile on fluid flow assumptions. This investigation utilizes blood as the primary fluid for nanofluids, introducing nanoparticles like zinc oxide  and titanium dioxide (. The study aims to explore their interactions and potential applications in the field of biomedicine. In order to streamline the complex scheme of partial differential equations (PDEs), boundary layer assumptions are employed. Through appropriate transformations, the governing partial differential equations (PDEs) and their associated boundary conditions are transformed into a dimensionless representation. By employing a local non-similarity technique with a second-degree truncation and utilizing MATLAB’s built-in finite difference code (bvp4c), the modified model’s outcomes are obtained. Once the calculated results and published results are satisfactorily aligned, graphical representations are used to illustrate and analyze how changing variables affect the fluid flow characteristics problems under consideration. In order to visualize the numerical variations of the drag coefficient and the Nusselt number, tables have been specially designed. Velocity profile of -blood and -blood decreases for increasing values of  and , while temperature profile increases for increasing values of  and . Concentration profile decreases for increasing values of , and microorganism profile increases for increasing values of . For rising values of  and  the drag coefficient increases and the Nusselt number decreases for rising values of  and  The model introduces a novel approach by conducting a non-similar analysis of the Darchy-Forchheimer bioconvection flow of a two-dimensional blood-based nanofluid in the presence of a magnetic field.