“Global South” is undoubtedly a broad term that typically refers to developing countries with varying degrees of economic, cultural and political influence. The rise of the Global South signifies the importance of reassessing the existing international order. In terms of international relations theory, this should be an innovative, progressive and reflective field of study. However, this research is predominantly led by the Western mainstream international relations theories. This often neglects the internal and external factors in the development processes of other countries, the formation of relationship frameworks, foreign policy formulation, and the need of foreign relations. Despite the ongoing and intense debate over the innovation of international relations theory, it is difficult to see it keeping pace with contemporary developments. Various schools and thoughts frequently innovate only within their foundational frameworks. Therefore, for Global South countries, there is the need for international relations theories that can reflect their specific needs and actual conditions. This does not only require breaking away from the westcentric theoretical framework, but ensuring that the innovation process is aligned with practical realities that recognize mutual interests and encompass both local and global perspectives. This approach should involve a comprehensive reflection on international relations, allowing innovation of international relations theories to genuinely “enter” the Global South countries.

The use of geotechnologies combined with remote sensing has become increasingly essential and important for efficiently and economically understanding land use and land cover in specific regions. The objective of this study was to observe changes in agricultural activities, particularly agriculture/livestock farming, in the North Forest Zone of Pernambuco (Mata Norte), a political-administrative region where sugarcane cultivation has historically been the backbone of the local economy. The region's sugarcane biomass also contributes to land use and land cover observations through remote sensing techniques applied to digital satellite images, such as those from Landsat-8, which was used in this study. This study was conducted through digital image processing, allowing the calculation of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and the Leaf Area Index (LAI) to assess vegetation cover dynamics. The results revealed that sugarcane cultivation is the predominant agricultural and vegetation activity in Mata Norte. Livestock farming areas experienced a significant reduction over the observed decade, which, in turn, led to an increase in agricultural and forested areas. The most dynamic spatiotemporal behavior was observed in the expansion and reduction of livestock areas, a more significant change compared to sugarcane areas. Therefore, land use and land cover in this region are more closely tied to sugarcane cultivation than any other agricultural activity.

 This study explores the primary drivers influencing sustainable project management (SPM) practices in the construction industry. This research study seeks to determine whether firms are primarily motivated by external pressures or internal values when embracing SPM practices. In doing so, this study contributes to the ongoing discourse on SPM drivers by considering coercive pressures (CP), ethical responsibility (ER), and green transformational leadership (GTL) as critical enablers facilitating a firm’s adoption of SPM practices. Based on data from 196 project management practitioners in Pakistan, structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized relationships. Results highlight that CP influences the management of sustainability practices in construction projects, signifying firms’ concern for securing legitimacy from various institutional actors. As an ‘intrinsic value’, ER emerges as a significant motivator for ecological stewardship, driven by a genuine commitment to promoting sustainable development. This study also unveils the significant moderating effect of GTL on the association among CP, ER, and SPM. Lastly, the results of IMPA reveal that ER slightly performs better than CP as it helps firms internalize the essence of sustainability. This research study expands our understanding of SPM drivers in construction projects by exploring the differential impact of external pressures and the firm’s intrinsic values. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners, aiding them in promoting SPM to attain sustainable development goals.

Cucumis sativus is an important vegetable crop in the world. Agrobacterium mediated transgenic technology is an important means to study plant gene function and variety improvement. In order to further accelerate the transgenic research and breeding process of cucumber, aiming at the Agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation method of cucumber, this paper expounds the research progress and existing problems of Agrobacterium mediated transgenic cucumber from the aspects of influencing factors of cucumber regeneration ability, genetic transformation conditions and various added substances in the process, and prospects the future of improving the efficiency of cucumber genetic transformation and the application of safety screening markers, in order to provide reference for cucumber stress resistance breeding and fruit quality improvement.