The COVID-19 pandemic prompted global crises and enforced strict measures like the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia, significantly impacting societal norms, particularly affecting secondary school students. The current study employs a qualitative methodology to determine how COVID-19 affects the life stress experienced by secondary school students. Secondary school students were recruited in Sabah, Malaysia, from April to August 2022, after Malaysia entered the endemic phase on 1 April 2022. As part of a larger survey, students were asked to respond to an open-ended question about life stressors they face as a result of the pandemic COVID-19 or during home-based teaching and learning (PdPR). A total of 1069 secondary school students from various backgrounds were included in the study. However, only 714 students responded to the open-ended question. The pattern of meaning across the texts was determined using Birks and Mills’s method of multilevel coding. The students’ perspectives on life stressors were classified into five broad categories: restriction stress, emotional stress, online study stress, family-related stress, and others-related stress. Restriction stress, which refers to being confined at home, restricted movement, hampered family, friendship, and outdoor activities, and no freedom were rated as the most significant life stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic by students. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers, educators, and parents, emphasizing the profound effect of pandemic-induced restrictions on student life and the essential role of targeted interventions in fostering resilience among students.

Our study focusses on the sustainable finance framework of the European Union. Given that the concept, target system and practical implementation of sustainability have become one of the top priorities, we consider it important to present in an understandable and simple form what activities and regulations have been created in this regard within the scope of the European Union’s common policy. Starting from the concept of sustainability, we analyse its significance. We examine the economic, social, corporate governance and environmental pillars and the European Green Deal based on them as foundations, as well as some prominent elements of sustainable finance: the Taxonomy, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and the Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. We review the relationships and interactions of the above elements. We describe the sustainability objectives of the European Green Deal and the resources related to them, as well as the Sustainable Finance package of the European Commission. We also provide an overview of the regulatory details of the above-mentioned elements of EU law, thereby making the complex and complicated process of regulation transparent. These issues are relevant to Hungary and other EU member states located in Central and Eastern Europe and they have an effect on their policies.

This study simultaneously examined the linkages among environmental dynamism, three dynamic capabilities, and the competitive advantages of retail businesses, which have not been identified before. Furthermore, this study fills the significant gaps in the literature and practical guidelines for retail development through improving retailer’s dynamic capabilities in response to environmental dynamism. The study used a quantitative approach by partial least squares SEM (PLS-SEM) to examine the hypotheses. Data were collected from 304 Vietnamese retail business managers. The results show that environmental dynamism plays a significant role in fostering the improvement of retailers’ dynamic capabilities. The findings also reveal positive linkages among the three dynamic capabilities before they significantly improve retailers’ competitive advantage. These are the valuable guidelines for retailers to nurture their dynamic capabilities, including service innovation capabilities, multi-channel integration, and brand orientation for sustaining their competitive advantages.

Despite the surge of publication of chatbots in the recent years in the field of education, we have little to know how this area has been researched so far, and the metrics of this type of research is still not known. To address such gap, this article offers a descriptive bibliometric study of chatbot research in education, aiming at presenting bibliometric analysis on articles on chatbots in education that were published in journals indexed in the Web of Science (WOS) database specifically Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) between 2016 and 2023. Descriptive bibliometric analysis was used to examine the data gathered from the chosen publications. including the annual number of articles and citations, the most productive author, countries with the highest publication output, productive affiliations, funding organizations, and publication sources. The bulk of the articles on chatbots in education, according to our dataset, were published between 2016 and 2023. The United States of America tops the list of countries regarding research productivity. The United Kingdom and China were ranked as most second and third productive countries, in terms of publication outputs. “Luke Kutszik Fryer emerged as the most productive author in this research domain in terms of the number of publications.” The University of Hong Kong had the highest number of publications among affiliations, indicating their significant contribution to the field. Additionally, the journal “Computers in Human Behavior” stood out with the highest number of publications per year, highlighting its relevance in publishing research on chatbots in education. This research offers valuable insights and a roadmap for prospective researchers, pinpointing critical areas where success can be attained in the study of chatbots in education.

The area of lake surface water is shrinking rapidly in Central Asia. We explore anthropogenic and climate factors driving this trend in Shalkar Lake, located in the Aral Sea region in Kazakhstan, Central Asia. We employ the Landsat satellite archive to map interannual changes in surface water between 1986 and 2021. The high temporal resolution of our dataset allows us to analyze the water surface data to investigate the time series of surface water change, economic and agricultural activities, and climate drivers like precipitation, evaporation, and air temperature. Toward this end, we utilize dynamic linear models (DLM). Our findings suggest that the shrinking of Shalkar Lake does not exhibit a systemic trend that could be associated with climate factors. Our empirical analysis, adopted to address local conditions, reveals that water reduction in the area is related to human interventions, particularly agricultural activities during the research period. On the other hand, the retrospectively fitted values indicate a semi-regular periodicity despite anthropogenic factors. Our results demonstrate that climate factors still play an essential role and should not be disregarded. Additionally, considering long-term climate projections in environmental impact assessment is crucial. The projected increase in temperatures and the corresponding decline in lake size highlights the need for proactive measures in managing water resources under changing climatic conditions.

The research aims to explore the role of Electronic Human Resources Management on employee performance through employee engagement. The present research’s population included all Jordanian Service and Public Administration Commission employees. The data was collection through a questionnaire that was administered for the study Population. 262 questionnaires collected from employees working in Service and Public Administration Commission in Jordan valid for statistics. The analysis of the data was undertaken through the use of SEM (structural equation modelling). The results showed that E-HRM has a direct impact on employee performance and employee engagement. Consequently, the indication from the results was that a significant role in mediation within the effect that E-HRM had upon employee performance been played by employee engagement. The conclusion reached was that transformation of the public sector through implementation of technological HRM methods fosters employee engagement, with that being a key driver for the alignment of employee behaviors for the achievement of high levels of employee performance.