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This paper aims to identify future scenarios and convergent technologies regarding the plantain chain in the region of Quindío, Colombia. It proposes the definition of key variables, convergent technologies, future objectives, future scenarios and hypotheses based on stakeholders’ and experts’ opinions collected through questionnaires, surveys and workshops.

The present analysis seeks to identify and anticipate the future routes for the improvement of scientific, technological, innovative and skills management of the plantain agroindustrial chain in the region of Quindío, Colombia using the foresight-by-scenarios and, Delphi methodologies and finally validating the results with artificial intelligence code and natural language processing.

After the analysis of 100 initial variables, the results suggested the identification of five key variables defined by the stakeholders and matrix-based multiplication applied to a classification (MICMAC) analysis such as “weather,” “financing and economy,” “grouping and associativity,” “crop” and “territorial planning and raw material.” Moreover, the definition of four future objectives along with the matrix of alliances and conflicts, tactics, objectives and recommendations (MACTOR) analysis suggested scenarios according to the probability. The most possible, probable and desirable scenario, was the cooccurrence of the five proposed hypotheses. Furthermore, the Delphi analysis allowed us to define nine subgroups from 116 subtopics including: “plantain varieties,” “plantain agroindustry,” “waste use” and “crop,” among others.

Due to the specificity of the analyzed agro-chain, the study only encompasses the plantain and banana sectors. However, the implications are related to the generation of projects in the selected technologies.

This paper includes implications for the development of prospective studies combining two or more different methodologies such as foresight-by-scenarios and Delphi method at the same time and further comparing the results with artificial intelligence analysis.

The generation of public policies in the sector and input for governmental analysis and tools for decision-making with a well-grounded, systematic and rational point of view.

This work describes for the first time, the implementation of the Delphi method regarding an important agroindustry sector such as plantain and banana prospective study. Furthermore, it explains the alignment of two methodologies; foresight-by-scenarios and the Delphi method related to the sectorial approaches, and convergent technologies and innovations, respectively. Moreover, a complementary bibliometric analysis with global terms related to the plantain or banana agroindustry was also included. In a novel way, we also applied an artificial intelligence code using Python software to contrast the results previously obtained in the foresight-by-scenarios method.

The pressing issues of climate change and environmental degradation call for a reevaluation of how we approach economic activities. Both leaders and corporations are now shifting their focus, toward adopting practices and embracing the concept of circular economy (CE). Within this context, the Food and Beverage (F&B) sector, which significantly contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, holds the potential for undergoing transformations. This study aims to explore the role that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play in facilitating the adoption of CE principles, within the F&B sector.

This research employs the Best Worst Method, a technique in multi-criteria decision-making. It focuses on identifying and ranking the challenges in implementing AI-driven CE in the F&B sector, with expert insights enhancing the ranking’s credibility and precision.

The study reveals and prioritizes barriers to AI-supported CE in the F&B sector and offers actionable insights. It also outlines strategies to overcome these barriers, providing a targeted roadmap for businesses seeking sustainable practices.

This research is socially significant as it supports the F&B industry’s shift to sustainable practices. It identifies key barriers and solutions, contributing to global climate change mitigation and sustainable development.

The research addresses a gap in literature at the intersection of AI and CE in the F&B sector. It introduces a system to rank challenges and strategies, offering distinct insights for academia and industry stakeholders.

This study was conducted to assess the alignment of the strategic plans of the Cavendish banana grower cooperatives to business excellence models (BEMs) and to determine its financial impact to elucidate the performance of the respective cooperatives. This is anchored on the primary objectives of cooperative business sustainability, expansion and sustained competitiveness, all of which are significantly impacted by the strategic plans. The BEMS establish the parameters that are useful in determining how well the strategic plans correspond.

Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this study. Strategic plans and audited financial statements (FS) for calendar year (CY) 2021 and 2022 of two Cavendish banana grower cooperatives in Region XI on the context of BEMs were evaluated and examined using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and Philippine Quality Award. Of the seven criteria, only five were considered as follows: organizational profile, leadership, strategy, workforce, process and result. The first four were taken from strategic plans, while result was from audited FS.

The strategic plans of the two cooperatives selectively satisfy some of the sub-criteria of each of the four criteria. Furthermore, the cooperatives followed the usual basic contents of and briefly presented in the strategic plans the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis, strategic objectives, plans, targets and timelines. This suggests that the cooperatives are not familiar with the BEMs which could be attributed to the educational qualifications of the directors and officers, or possibly not introduced by the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA). On the financial performance, one cooperative has impressive records but generally had lower performance in 2022 compared to 2021.

This study covers only Cavendish banana grower cooperatives particularly located in the Southeastern part of Mindanao (CDA, 2021) in the Philippines where people are mostly of similar culture. This does not represent much diverse culture; thus, this may work only in organizations with similar culture. In other industries or organizations where cultural diversity occurs, there may be a need to conduct study to determine the level of adoption of BEMs by the cooperatives. On the other note, the samples are very limited that generalizability cannot be made. Conducting a similar study involving many cooperatives is suggested.

This study explores the alignment of the Strategic Plans of the Cavendish banana grower cooperatives to BEMs which has long been neglected.

This study aims to focus on the main materials used in consolidation processes of illuminated paper manuscripts and leather binding.

For each material, chemical structure, chemical composition, molecular formula, solubility, advantages, disadvantages and its role in treatment process are presented.

This study concluded that carboxy methyl cellulose, hydroxy propyl cellulose, methyl cellulose, cellulose acetate, nanocrystalline cellulose, funori, sturgeon glue, poly vinyl alcohol, chitosan, chitosan nanoparticles (NPs), gelatin, aquazol, paraloid B72 and hydroxyapatite NPs were the most common and important materials used for the consolidation of illuminated paper manuscripts. For the leather bindings, hydroxy propyl cellulose, polyethylene glycol, oligomeric melamine-formaldehyde resin, acrylic wax SC6000, pliantex, paraloid B67 and B72, silicone oil and collagen NPs are the most consolidants used.

Illuminated paper manuscripts with leather binding are considered one of the most important objects in libraries, museums and storehouses. The uncontrolled conditions and other deterioration factors inside the libraries and storehouses lead to degradation of these artifacts. The brittleness, fragility and weakness are considered the most common deterioration aspects of illuminated paper manuscripts and leather binding. Therefore, the consolidation process became vital and important to solve this problem. This study presents the main materials used for consolidation process of illuminated paper manuscripts and leather bindings.

This study aims to gain a new perspective on auditing by measuring investors’ fraud perception and to reveal the necessity of increasing individuals’ fraud perception by determining the effect of fraud perception on the intention to invest in crypto assets from the investor’s perspective.

As part of this quantitative research, a survey was conducted on individuals residing in Türkiye and aged 18 years and above through a convenience sampling method. A total of 446 participants were included in the study. The data collected was analyzed using the partial least squares-variance based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method using the SmartPLS program.

Fraud perception causes individuals to be more risk-averse and reduces their intention to invest in crypto assets. At the same time, it has been observed that risk-averse individuals have lower intention to invest in crypto assets. According to the results of the mediating effect analysis, risk aversion behavior partially mediates between the fraud perception and the intention to invest in crypto assets. Among the emotions, only fear increases risk aversion behavior. Among the personality traits, extroversion and openness to experience personality traits reduce risk aversion behavior, whereas neuroticism personality traits increase the intention to invest in crypto assets.

In an environment where traditional auditing activities are insufficient, increasing investors’ perceptions of fraud can reduce fraud-related losses. In this context, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study might be among the first to investigate the impact of individuals’ perceptions of fraud on their investment intentions in crypto assets.

The purpose of this article is to provide information about interactions between pink-pigmented facultative methylotroph (PPFM) organisms and plants, their molecular mechanisms of methylotrophic metabolism, application of PPFMs in agriculture, biotechnology and bioremediation and also to explore lacuna in PPFMs research and direction for future research.

Research findings on PPFM organisms as potent plant growth promoting organisms are discussed in the light of reports published by various workers. Unexplored field of PPFM research are detected and their application as a new group of biofertilizer that also help host plants to overcome draught stress in poorly irrigated crop field is suggested.

PPFMs are used as plant growth promoters for improved crop yield, seed germination capacity, resistance against pathogens and tolerance against drought stress. Anti-oxidant and UV resistant properties of PPFM pigments protect the host plants from strong sunshine. PPFMs have excellent draught ameliorating capacity.

To meet the ever increasing world population, more and more barren, less irrigated land has to be utilized for agriculture and horticulture purpose and use of PPFM group of organisms due to their draught ameliorating properties in addition to their plant growth promoting characters will be extremely useful. PPFMs are also promising candidates for the production of various industrially and medicinally important enzymes and other value-added products. Wider application of this ecofriendly group of bacteria will reduce crop production cost thus improving economy of the farmers and will be a greener alternative of hazardous chemical fertilizers and fungicides.

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This paper aims to explore the barriers and facilitators to psychosocial well-being among ethnic Nepali Bhutanese American older adults from the perspective of health care and service providers working with this population. Specifically, the authors aimed to understand health-care and service providers’ perceptions of the psychosocial well-being in this community and appropriate interventions.

Qualitative research methods were used to collect and analyze data in collaboration with a community-based organization. A total of ten participants were interviewed. Interviews were conducted in either English or Nepali, based on participant preference. An inductive thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the data.

Three major themes were generated from the analysis. The first two were in reference to perceived barriers to mental well-being among Bhutanese American older adults: isolation that older adults faced in the USA and shifting responsibilities and lifestyles that arose from the cultural and structural barriers in the USA. Throughout these themes, there was an understanding that acculturation threatened families’ connections to each other and impacted older adults’ connections with younger generations. The third theme, a perceived facilitator of well-being, was the power of storytelling to counteract feelings of isolation and disempowerment caused by shifting lifestyles felt by older adults, especially amid community events.

Bhutanese American older adults, many of whom have limited English proficiency, face numerous challenges, psychosocial stressors and factors contributing to well-being. Care for this population should prioritize dignity, empowerment and the incorporation of strengths within their narratives. Interventions and services tailored for older Bhutanese American adults need to be adapted to integrate multiple care systems.

This study examines the impact of career competencies (CC) (in the form of personal resources) on sustainable employability (SE) under the tenets of the Conservation of Resources theory. Further, we assess the moderating impact of coworker support and supervisor support (work-related social resources) in this relationship.

Data were collected using survey method from 362 doctors employed in private hospitals in Pakistan. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results suggests a significant influence of CC on SE. Further, results also reveal that social support received from coworkers moderates the relationship between CC and SE. However, we find that supervisor support does not moderate the said relationship.

This research has clear novelty as SE is a recently defined construct and is still an area with insufficient empirical research. There is increasing interest in identifying the determinants and underlying mechanism of SE. Thus, this study makes contributions to knowledge by investigating CC and social resources as antecedents of SE. This study also offers implications for theory generally, and within the medical practitioner context more specifically.

This study aims to explore and document some of the phenomena that seem to have toxified the trans debate.

To create a partial compilation of the phenomena most known to cloud human judgement and reasoning, using the trans debate as the prime example.

The trans debate seems to have been increasingly toxified in ways predicted by well-documented psychological phenomena.

Although much is known about the psychological toxifiers on an individual basis, little is known about how they interact to cause the emergence and amplification of toxic debate.

It is anticipated by studying the emergence of the toxicity around the trans debate, that the descent into toxic discourse in many other contexts can be better understood.

If lessons can be learnt from the descent into toxicity in the trans debate, and its participants become aware of their behaviour, perhaps they can better work towards a mutually acceptable solution.

By compiling the factors responsible for the toxification of debate, it is hoped that what appear to be the precursors of all conflict and war can be better understood, prevented or avoided.

This practice forum paper aims to present a theoretical framework to better develop the required supply chain management (SCM) competencies and the workforce needed for managing public health supply chains.

This framework is driven by iterative systems thinking, a deeper consideration of the SCM labor market and a comprehensive mapping of human resource system requirements. The framework centers around three tools. A labor market analysis assesses factors influencing supply of and demand for health SCM workers in a country context. To improve supply of and demand for workers, the SCM Professionalisation Framework provides reference documents to establish health SCM as a recognized profession. The human resources for SCM Theory of Change explains and assesses the conditions required to achieve optimal workforce performance at the organizational level. The Ministry of Health in Rwanda applied these three tools sequentially to assess and improve the supply and performance of its health SCM workforce.

The authors describe this framework, how the tools were applied in Rwanda, and early impressions of the results.

Practitioners can apply this approach to improve SCM competence and promote the attractiveness of health SCM positions by formalizing their professional status. This could lead to a pool of individuals who seek SCM qualifications and, in time, overcome the current shortage of health SCM workers. Employers can apply this approach to structured roles and workforce needs to meet health SCM system requirements. This would lead to a greater demand for and use of appropriately trained personnel.

This paper presents a novel, iterative, systems-thinking approach to develop human resources in public health supply chains. Rwanda is the first country to apply all three tools using this framework.