To increase inter-region connectivity, the Indonesian government initiated infrastructure projects such as toll roads, airport, highways, as well as agriculture ones throughout the countries. One of the big projects in road infrastructure was the Cikampek–Palimanan (Cipali) toll road in West Java with a budget of more than USD1 billion which started to operate in July 2015. This paper is aimed to evaluate the impact of the toll road on accessibilities, trades, and investments in the region it traverses. To carry out the analysis, we used qualitative approach, difference-in-difference approach, and ANOVA, utilizing three kinds of data. The first data is collected from a survey of 331 small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the logistics and the hotel and restaurant industries. The second one is bank loan data sourced from Bank Indonesia, while the third one is investment data from Investment Coordinating Board of Indonesia (BKPM).
After two years of its operation, Cipali toll road has increased accessibility, mobility, trade, and investment in the region it traverses. The travel time was reduced by 39%, while the cargo volume of the local businesses increased by 30% to 40%. These led to an improvement of wholesale trade volume in almost all regencies. However, SMEs in the hotel and restaurant industry along the traditional northern coastal highway in Subang, Indramayu, and Brebes experienced a decline due to the traffic shifting. Meanwhile, investments from national companies especially those of labor-intensive manufacturing industries flowed significantly especially to Subang and Majalengka, which reflected a “sorting effect”. However, investments from local and foreign businesses did not increase significantly yet after 2.5 years of toll operation.
To reap the benefit from the presence of Cipali toll road, the local governments should improve the ease of doing business to attract investments that boost employment in return. In addition, given a better accessibility from Greater Jakarta and a large number of potential visitors passing through the toll road, local businesses in the trade sector would benefit if they could promote the local attractions such as in tourism activities supported by the local government. The latter strategy should also be implemented by the local governments and local businesses in the northern coastal traditional route to minimize the negative impact of the toll road due to the traffic shifting. This strategy should be strengthened through increasing connectivity from the toll exits to local business areas and through increasing the ease of doing business.

Digitalization has recently gained significant relevance in the education field. The focus has been on its use and application, as well as on training teachers and students to become responsible, competent, and ethical users of technology. This is connected to the creation of policies and programs that promote online learning and interaction from basic to higher education. In this context, this study aims to analyze the scientific production related to digital citizenship through a bibliometric mapping of publications indexed in the Web of Science database. The goal is to identify the main research trends in this field. The results show a growth in the number of publications since 2016, mainly focusing on topics such as digital citizenship media, digital competences, higher education, teachers, students, adolescents, adults, competence, digital literacy, and citizenship education. The presence of a significant number of journals related to the field of education denotes a close relationship between this field and the topic of study. Also, it is revealing a higher concentration of research production in the United States and Europe, with Latin America being absent from this scenario. The study identifies an intellectual structure of the discipline, particularly regarding the most relevant authors, journals, and descriptors. These results are important for understanding the research practices inherent to the field, which projects digital citizenship as an emerging topic. The study concludes by proposing lines of interest for further research on the topic in education and other fields, as well as acknowledging the limitations found in the present article.

Water splitting has gained significant attention as a means to produce clean and sustainable hydrogen fuel through the electrochemical or photoelectrochemical decomposition of water. Efficient and cost-effective water splitting requires the development of highly active and stable catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Carbon nanomaterials, including carbon nanotubes, graphene, and carbon nanofibers, etc., have emerged as promising candidates for catalyzing these reactions due to their unique properties, such as high surface area, excellent electrical conductivity, and chemical stability. This review article provides an overview of recent advancements in the utilization of carbon nanomaterials as catalysts or catalyst supports for the OER and HER in water splitting. It discusses various strategies employed to enhance the catalytic activity and stability of carbon nanomaterials, such as surface functionalization, hybridization with other active materials, and optimization of nanostructure and morphology. The influence of carbon nanomaterial properties, such as defect density, doping, and surface chemistry, on electrochemical performance is also explored. Furthermore, the article highlights the challenges and opportunities in the field, including scalability, long-term stability, and integration of carbon nanomaterials into practical water splitting devices. Overall, carbon nanomaterials show great potential for advancing the field of water splitting and enabling the realization of efficient and sustainable hydrogen production.

This study conducts a systematic literature review to analyze the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) within business excellence frameworks. An analysis of the findings in the reviewed articles yielded five major themes: AI technologies and intelligent systems; impact of AI on business operations, strategies, and models; AI-driven decision-making in infrastructure and policy contexts; new forms of innovation and competitiveness; and the impact of AI on organizational performance and value creation in infrastructure projects. The findings provide a comprehensive understanding of how AI can be integrated into organizational excellence emerged frameworks to address challenges in infrastructure governance, and sustainable development. Key questions addressed include: how AI affects consumer behavior and marketing strategies. What AI’s capabilities for businesses, especially marketing and digital strategies? How can organizations address the drivers and barriers to help make better use of AI in these business operations? Should organizations even do anything with these insights? These questions and more will be tackled throughout this discussion. This paper attempts to derive a comprehensive conceptual framework from several fields of human resources, operational excellence, and digital transformation, that can help guide organizations and policymakers in embedding AI into infrastructure and development initiatives. This framework will help practitioners navigate the complexities of AI integration, ensuring profitability and sustainable growth in a highly competitive landscape. By bridging the gap between AI technologies and development-related policy initiatives, this research contributes to the advancement of infrastructure governance, public management, and sustainable development.

The successful execution of large-scale infrastructure projects is essential for economic growth and societal development, but these projects are too often beset with financial risks. The main financial risks related to infrastructure projects, including cost overrun, funding uncertainty, currency fluctuation, and regulatory change are examined in this research. The study identifies and assesses the magnitude and frequency of these risks by combining surveys and analysis of financial reports. The findings show that current risk management strategies, including hedging, contingency funds, and public-private partnerships, are often unsuitable to respond to the specific needs of financial uncertainties. The research suggests the need for an all-encompassing financial risk management framework that relies on real-time data analysis and a cocktail of risk assessment tools. Additionally, the development of strategic tailored approaches to address financial risk recovery depends on proactive stakeholder engagement. This research complements the existing literature on risk management in infrastructure projects by highlighting the financial dimensions of risk management and suggesting future research on advanced financial tools and technologies. Ultimately, large-scale infrastructure project sustainability and success contribute to economic stability and societal well-being can only be achieved through effective financial risk management.