This study addresses the crucial question of the macroeconomic impact of investing in railroad infrastructure in Portugal. The aim is to shed light on the immediate and long-term effects of such investments on economic output, employment, and private investment, specifically focusing on interindustry variations. We employ a Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model and utilize industry-level data to estimate elasticities and marginal products on these three economic indicators. Our findings reveal a compelling positive long-term spillover effect of these investments. Specifically, every €1 million in capital spending results in a €20.84 million increase in GDP, a €17.78 million boost in private investment, and 72 new net permanent jobs. However, these gains are not immediate, as only 14.5% of the output increase and 38.8% of the investment surge occur in the first year. In contrast, job creation is nearly instantaneous, with 93% of new jobs materializing within the first year. A short-term negative impact on the trade balance is expected as new capital goods are imported. Upon industry-level analysis, the most pronounced output increases are witnessed in the real estate, construction, and wholesale and retail trade industries. The most substantial net job creation occurs in the construction, professional services, and hospitality industries. This study enriches the empirical literature by uncovering industry-specific impacts and temporal macroeconomic effects of railroad infrastructure investments. This underscores their dual advantage in bolstering long-term economic performance and counteracting job losses during downturns, thus offering valuable public policy implications. Notably, these benefits are not evenly distributed across all industries, necessitating strategic sectoral planning and awareness of employment agencies to optimize spending programs and adapt to industry shifts.

The digital era has transformed education, making digital literacy essential for teachers to integrate technology and enhance student outcomes effectively. This study aims to examine how school culture influences teachers’ performance through their digital literacy, focusing on junior high school teachers in Malang City, East Java, Indonesia. Employing a quantitative approach, data were collected from 214 teachers out of a 457 population using questionnaires. The analysis was conducted through AMOS for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), SPSS for descriptive statistics, and PLS-SEM for hypothesis testing. The findings reveal that school culture significantly affects teachers’ digital literacy (Ho1) and teacher performance (Ho2) with supportive and innovative environments, while rigid cultures limit creativity. Furthermore, digital literacy was found to enhance teachers’ performance (Ho3) and mediate the impact of school culture on teachers’ performance (Ho4), enhancing teachers’ effectiveness in planning, implementing, and evaluating instruction. This study highlights the critical role of school culture in shaping digital literacy and offers new insights for improving teacher practices in diverse educational settings. Moreover, the role of education policies in fostering a collaborative school culture that enhances teachers’ digital literacy and performance, leading to improved educational outcomes, plays a crucial implication.

Delay is the leading challenge in completing Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) projects. Delay can cause excess costs, which reduces company profits. The relationship between subcontractors and the main contractor is a critical factor that can support the success of an EPC project. The problematic financial condition of the main contractor can cause delay in payments to subcontractors. This research will set a model that combines the system dynamics and earned value method to describe the impact of subcontractor advance payments on project performance. The system dynamics method is used to model and analyze the impact of interactions between variables affecting project performance, while the earned value method is applied to quantitatively evaluate project performance and forecast schedule and cost outcomes. These two methods are used complementarily to achieve a holistic understanding of project dynamics and to optimize decision-making. The designed model selects the optimum scenario for project time and costs. The developed model comprises project performance, costs, cash flow, and performance forecasting sub-models. The novelty in this research is a new model for optimizing project implementation time and costs, adding payment rate variables to subcontractors and subcontractor performance rates. The designed model can provide additional information to assist project managers in making decisions.

This study examines the crucial role of digital marketing in promoting sustainable tourism in the villages of Bali. It adopts a mixed methods approach, using qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. The qualitative data were obtained from semi-structured interviews with management teams who have experience in implementing digital marketing strategies for village tourism. The interviewees were selected using a purposive sampling technique. The quantitative data were gathered from questionnaires distributed to domestic tourists who visited the villages. The questionnaires measured the tourists’ perceptions of digital marketing as a tool for village tourism marketing. The study found that digital marketing plays a vital role in promoting tourism villages, as most tourists learned about the villages through online media. The study also identified five dimensions of digital marketing, namely website media, social media, search engines, email marketing, and online advertising, which have potential effects on the sustainability of tourism villages. The study conducted statistical tests to examine the effects of 20 indicators of digital marketing on village tourism marketing. The results showed that 16 indicators had a significant positive effect, while four indicators had no effect. These findings suggest that digital marketing is an effective way to market tourism villages and enhance their sustainability.

Piano sight-reading competency, which is highly important for an aspiring musician who needs to face diverse musical problems, is an integral part of becoming a smooth performer. The aims of this systematic literature review concerning piano sight-reading pedagogy approaches between 2019 and 2024 are to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the peer-reviewed literature. The article examines cognitive, behavioral, and technological methods and tools of enhancing learning outcomes, based on the concept of cognitive load, constructivism, and behaviorist perspective. The cognitive strategies highlight the role of hand-eye coordination, short-term memory, and visual process; while the behavioral ones emphasize the importance of daily practice and feedback from the teacher. Emerging technologies, like VR and AI-driven platforms, are redefining education and offering unique ways of learning and forgetting. While achievements of the past are notable, challenges such as access and efficacious long-term approaches remain. The next step of research should be to focus on sustainable teaching methods and international perspectives to achieve homogeneous and effective sight-reading teaching worldwide. This essay provides an overview of integrated and adaptable teaching strategies that combine both traditional and modern tools for the development of versatile and confident musicians' skills.

Interest in the impact of environmental innovations on firms’ financial performance has surged over the past two decades, but studies show inconsistent results. This paper addresses these divergences by analyzing 74 studies from 1996 to 2022, encompassing 4,390,754 firm-year observations. We developed a probability-based meta-analysis approach to synthesize existing knowledge and found a generally positive impact of environmental innovations on financial performance, with a probability range of 0.85 to 0.97. Manufacturing firms benefit more from environmental innovations than firms in other industries, and survey-based studies report a more favorable relationship than those using secondary data. This study contributes to existing knowledge by providing a comprehensive aggregation of data, supporting the resource-based view (RBV) and the Porter hypothesis. The findings suggest significant policy implications, highlighting the need for tailored incentives and information-sharing mechanisms, and underscore the importance of diverse data sources in research to ensure robust results.