Artificial intelligence has transformed teachers’ teaching models. This article explores the application of artificial intelligence in basic education in Macao middle schools. This study adopts case analysis in qualitative research, using a total of eight cases from the innovative technology education platform of the Macau education and Youth Development Bureau. These data illustrate how Macao’s artificial intelligence technology promotes teaching innovation in basic education. These eight cases are closely related to the application of artificial intelligence in basic education in Macao. The survey results show that Macao’s education policy has a positive effect on teaching innovation in artificial intelligence education. In teaching practice, the school also cooperates with the government’s policy. The application of AI technology in teaching, students’ learning styles, changes in teachers’ roles, and new needs for teacher training are all influential.

The carbon footprint, which measures greenhouse gas emissions, is a good environmental indicator for choosing the best sustainable mode of transportation. The available emission factors depend heavily on the calculation methodology and are hardly comparable. The minimum and maximum scenarios are one way of making the results comparable. The best sustainable passenger transport modes between Rijeka and Split were investigated and compared by calculating the minimum and maximum available emission factors. The study aims to select the best sustainable mode of transport on the chosen route and to support the decision-making process regarding the electrification of the Lika railroad, which partially connects the two cities. In the minimum scenario, ferry transport without vehicles was the best choice when the transportation time factor was not relevant, and electric rail transport when it was. In the maximum scenario, the electric train and the ferry with vehicles were equally good choices. Road transportation between cities was not competitive at all. The comparison of the carbon footprint based on minimum and maximum scenarios gives a clear insight into the ratio of greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles in passenger transport. It supports the electrification of the Lika railroad as the best sustainable transport solution on the route studied.

The employees in academic sector had to face an abrupt change due to Covid-19 pandemic and transformation of education into online and remote learning. This has led to virtual work intensity as an aftermath that negatively influences employees’ job satisfaction. In addition, due to remote working conditions, the lines between work and life had been dimmed and thus, the current situation is important to be addressed for wellbeing of academic staff. This research specifically aims to examine impact of virtual work intensity on job satisfaction among university staff. Furthermore, mediating effect of organizational support and work-life balance on the aforementioned relationship are analyzed to better understand the underlying effects. Through PLS-SEM and using a questionnaire survey, a total of 183 data were collected from teachers and administrative staff of two universities. The results show that virtual work intensity can hinder job satisfaction, while organizational support and work-life balance can improve job satisfaction of academic employees. This is due to the fact that support, and balance act against work intensity that diminishes wellbeing of individuals. This implies the vital role of organizations (e.g., human resource department) in providing support for their staff, and creating an environment, where academic staff can have a better work-life balance, leading to higher rates of job satisfaction as an important factor for psychological wellbeing.

This paper provides a unique empirical analysis of the effects of political factors on the adoption of PPP contracts in Brazil. As such, it innovates along two different lines: first, political factors behind the adoption of PPPs have been largely ignored in the vast body of empirical literature, and second, there is scant work done on the motives of any kind behind the adoption of PPPs in Brazil. Various economic and financial reasons have been evoked to justify the use of PPPs in general. These include the goal of promoting socio-economic development in a tight public budgetary framework or of improving the quality of public services through the use of economically efficient and cost-effective mechanisms. Any possible underlying political motives, however, have been overlooked in the PPP research. And yet, there is abundant literature suggesting a link between the adoption of PPPs and the ideology of the governing body or the political cycles associated with elections. This study examines the impact of ideological commitment and opportunistic political behavior on the process of PPP contracting in Brazil, including the stages of public consultation, the publication of tender, and the signature of the contract, using federative-level data for the period between 2005 and 2022. Consistent with the outstanding literature, the two hypotheses are tested: first, conservative parties tend to celebrate more PPP contracts than left-leaning parties, and second, the electoral calendar has a significant effect in the process, allowing for opportunistic behaviors. Empirical results suggest that there is little evidence for the relevance of ideological leanings in the process of adopting PPPs in Brazil. Additionally, regardless of ideology, parties significantly choose to enter PPPs at specific points in the electoral cycle, suggesting decisions are influenced by political considerations and electoral strategy rather than by purely financial or ideological considerations. This may pose severe constraints on the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the contracts, negatively impacting public governance and leading to protracted costs for taxpayers.

The cambucizeiro (Campomanesia phaea), belonging to the Myrtaceae family, is a native plant of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The description of the characteristics of the cambucizeiro fruits is important to support new genetic improvement works and its commercial exploitation, especially regarding the processing of the fruit. The present work aimed to perform the morphological and chemical characterization of the cambucizeiro fruits. Fifty-eight accessions, from different locations in the Atlantic Forest and Serra do Mar in the state of São Paulo, were collected, propagated by seeds and one specimen of each accessory is at the Seedling Production Center in São Bento do Sapucaí (SP). Forty fruits from each access were collected in May and submitted to the following analyses: longitudinal and transversal diameter, total fruit fresh mass, number and mass of seeds, total soluble solids, % citric acid, ratio, firmness, vitamin C and coloration. Fruit conformation varies intensely among accessions. The number of seeds is not a good indicator for the relation with the fruit mass, but the mass of one thousand seeds. Some accessions have high soluble solids content, but, on the other hand, the vast majority have fruits with high acidity. Cambuci is an excellent source of vitamin C. The fruits of the accessions are green in color, persisting an opaque shade when ripe.

In recent years, ghost imaging has made important progress in the field of remote sensing imaging. In order to promote the application of solar ghost imaging in this field, this paper studies the computational ghost imaging based on the incoherent light of blackbody radiation. Firstly, according to the intensity probability density function of blackbody radiation, the expression of contrast-to-noise ratio (R_CN) describing the quality of computational ghost imaging is obtained, and then the random speckle pattern simulating blackbody radiation is generated by computer with the idea of slice sampling, finally, a digital light projector is used to modulate and generate the random modulated light that simulates the blackbody radiation light source, and this light source is used to realize the computational ghost image of the reflective object in the experiment. The “ghost image” of the object under different measurement frame numbers is reconstructed, and the contrast-to-noise ratio describing the imaging quality is measured. The results show that the image quality is relatively good when the average intensity (gray) of the randomly modulated speckle is about 160. On the other hand, the contrast-to-noise ratio of the image gradually increases from 0.8795 to 1.241, 1.516, 1.755, 2.100 and 2.371 as the number of measurement frames increases from 2,000 to 4,000, 6,000, 8,000, 12,000 and 20,000, respectively. The experimental results are basically consistent with the theoretical analysis. The results are of great significance for the application of ghost imaging with incoherent light, such as sunlight, which is approximately regarded as blackbody radiation, in the field of remote imaging.