Financial inclusion and social protection have been recognised as the primary essential stimuli from the potential they carry as avenues for economic development, especially with respect to reduction in poverty and inequalities, the creation of employment and the enhancement overall welfare and livelihood. However, inclusive access to financial resources and equitable access to social protection interventions have remained a significant concern in Nigeria. In addition, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the weakness of Nigeria in all sectors of the economy such as energy, health, education and food systems and low-level inclusive access to financial resources and social protection coverage. On the other hand, this study argues that financial inclusion and social protection has the potential to mitigation shocks orchestrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study empirically examines how social protection interventions and access to financial resources responded to COVID-19 pandemic. The study made use of data sourced from the World Bank’s COVID-19 national longitudinal phone survey 2020 and applied the logit regression. The findings show that social protection and access to financial resources significantly associated with the likelihood of shock mitigation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that social protection intervention reduces the probability of being severely affected by shocks by 0.431. Given this result, the study recommends that the government should put more effort into proper social protection intervention to mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the deep integration of artificial intelligence technology in education, the development of AI integration capabilities among pre-service teachers—as the core of future educational human resources—has become crucial for enhancing educational quality and driving digital transformation in education. Based on the AI-TPACK (Artificial Intelligence-Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) theoretical framework, this study employs questionnaire surveys and structural equation modeling to explore the structural characteristics, influencing factors, and formation mechanisms of AI-TPACK competencies among pre-service teachers in Chinese universities. Findings indicate that while pre-service teachers demonstrate moderately high overall AI-TPACK levels, their technical knowledge (AI-TK) and technological integration competencies (e.g., AI-TPK, AI-TCK) remain relatively weak. School technical support, technological attitudes, and technological competence significantly influence their AI-TPACK capabilities, with institutional level and teaching experience serving as important external moderating factors. Building on these findings, this paper proposes a systematic framework for developing pre-service teachers' AI integration capabilities from a human resource development perspective. This framework encompasses four dimensions: curriculum optimization, practice enhancement, resource support, and policy guidance. It aims to provide theoretical foundations and practical pathways for pre-service teacher training and teacher human resource development in higher education institutions.

Coordination and integration among farms within agri-food chains are crucial to tackle the issue of fragmentation within the primary sector, both at the European and national level. The Italian agri-food system still complains about the need to aggregate supply to support market dynamics, especially for niche and quality products that characterize the Made in Italy. It is well known that the Italian agri-food sector is closely linked to the relationship between agriculture on one hand and culture/tradition on the other, which is reflected in the high number of quality products that have obtained EU PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) and PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) recognition. The development of vertical forms of coordination has found significant support in recent years from the integrated supply chain design approach, which is increasingly becoming an essential tool for implementing rural development policies. In this context, the study provides a comparison between companies that have joined the Integrated Supply Chain Projects of the Rural Development Program and those that have not applied. The aim is to highlight any differences in order to understand policy impact. The analysis is based on the Emilia-Romagna region Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data, and the sample consists of more than 2 thousand farms. The statistical analysis conducted compares treated and non-treated using the Welch-t-test for independent unmatched samples. The main results show higher values for treated farms when structural variables are analyzed, like the utilized agricultural area or the agricultural work unit. In general, higher balance sheet performances emerged for treated farms. In conclusion, this study shows that the Integrated Supply Chain Projects represent a worthwhile tool both to increase cooperation, food quality, and to enhance a competitive agricultural sector.

Attempts were made in the present study to design and develop skeletally modified ether linked tetraglycidyl epoxy resin (TGBAPSB), which is subsequently reinforced with different weight percentages of amine functionalized mullite fiber (F-MF). The F-MF was synthesized by reacting mullite fiber with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) as coupling agent and the F-MF structure was confirmed by FT-IR. TGBAPSB reinforced with F-MF formulation was cured with 4,4’-diamino diphenyl methane (DDM) to obtain nanocomposite. The surface morphology of TGBAPSB-F-MF epoxy nanocomposites was investigated by XRD, SEM and AFM studies. From the study, it follows that these nanocomposite materials offer enhancement in mechanical, thermal, thermo-mechanical, dielectric properties compared to neat (TGBAPSB) epoxy matrix. Hence we recommend these nanocomposites for a possible use in advanced engineering applications that require both toughness and stiffness.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new dimension of organizational collective engagement (OCE), namely spiritual engagement. This dimension proposes spiritual engagement, which is considered to increase the bundle of engagement as a whole at the organizational level. We collected data from 107 employees who worked in various agencies in Indonesia. We tested the validity and reliability of the proposed indicators of OCE and spiritual engagement using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. This study enhances the literature in the field of human resource development, especially in OCE, with the Islamic dimension of spiritual engagement. The findings reveal that there are 10 valid and reliable indicators that can be used to measure the concept of OCE among employees in Indonesia. OCE with four dimensions (physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual) can be an effort to increase organizational effectiveness through the collective engagement of all employees. Since this research is limited to Indonesia, further studies are needed in institutions around the world so that the consistency of the results can be justified.

This journal article aims to analyze the relationship between school culture and effective headteacher educational leadership, and how this relationship affects school performance and student learning outcomes. We will explore this important issue in depth and provide institutions and principals with practical advice on how to understand and use school culture to enhance the educational leadership of principals.