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In many real-world problems, this paper faces some production processes that have internal structures that should be taken into account to have a comprehensive analysis. This situation is settled in the network data envelopment analysis (DEA) literature. Therefore, in this article, this paper aims to develop two types of covering location problems joint with network data envelopment analysis. This paper propose biobjective mixed integer programming models associated with the aforementioned development. In the first model, the goal is to select locations of facilities such that the total efficiency score is maximized and the total establishing cost for covering all demands is minimized. In the second model, this paper considers the location of facilities for maximizing the total efficiency score and covering the demands.

Covering location problems is considered a very important issue in the decision-making of organizations and companies. The purpose of these problems is to assign a set of demand points to a set of candidate locations so that optimal covering is provided for the demand points. Considering the efficiency of facility location with the help of DEA helps the decision-maker to reach more effective information and better analysis of the problem.

This paper applied the proposed models in the health centers of Shahrood City, so that each of the centers is considered a decision-making unit, and each of the decision-making units consists of three subunits that are connected in a series network. The primary results highlight the importance of the internal units beside the overall performance of healthcare centers.

Therefore, in this article, this paper develops two novel types of covering location problems joint with network data envelopment analysis. This paper proposes biobjective mixed integer programming models associated with the aforementioned development.

The chapter contains an in-depth analysis of contemporary risks confronting terrestrial ecosystems and examines prominent strategies for biodiversity preservation, sustainable tourism, and ecological management. Agroforestry parks and ecological corridors emerge as central mechanisms for safeguarding biodiversity and enhancing habitat connectivity. The chapter delves also into the urgent task of combating desertification, exacerbated by climate change and unsustainable practices, with a particular emphasis on the challenges inherent in the realm of tourism. Within the context of tourism, the chapter identifies nature and adventure tourism as catalysts for fostering biodiversity conservation through emotive engagement, thereby stimulating visitor support for conservation policies. The imperative of sustainable tourism practices, underscored by a dedicated commitment to attenuating adverse impacts while optimizing positive outcomes, assumes paramount importance in this pursuit. The chapter underscores the strategic significance of managing visitor influxes, exemplified by techniques such as access limitations and temporal restrictions, as a key approach to mitigate issues of overcrowding and ecological deterioration.

The research aims to measure the effectiveness of collaborative learning exchanges transpired through digital tools and technologies (DT&Ts) employed by the mentor universities during the COVID-19 pandemic by conducting an empirical study on undergraduate students in Indian higher educational institutions (HEIs) under the mentorship program based on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative. The pandemic scenario, its impact on the mentor university's social responsibility and the way DT&Ts can assist are investigated in this article.

The interactions with experts and students were conducted to explore the DT&Ts for learning exchanges. Next, structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to validate the model and perform regression analysis. The quantitative data collection was made through questionnaires during the second deadly wave of COVID-19 that hit India.

The independent variables (IVs) such as the IT infrastructure support (IT_IS), virtual collaborative tools (VCTs) and future-oriented technologies (FOTs) have a significant impact on the CSR learning outcomes (CSR_LOs) of undergraduate students under the mentorship program. However, IV research instruments for innovation could not make a significant effect.

The IVs IT_IS, VCTs and FOTs influence the CSR_LOs, while RII does not have an influential impact.

As the online learning environment is expected to stay at least in a blended form, adequate CSR funding in infrastructure is necessitated to harness the full potential of this important resource, technology. The results of this empirical investigation affirm that IT_IS, VOTs and FOTs significantly impact CSR_LOs during the crisis. The study findings would encourage the mendtor universities and their stakeholders, including the mentee universities, to evolve and create an ecosystem for effective management of these resources to attain positive outcomes. The study findings can guide the mentor universities in managing uncertainties like pandemics and effectively using the earlier-mentioned critical resources for social responsibility. This research also allows the development of future applications adnd models in mentor-mentee universities for social responsibility, post-pandemic transformation and resilience.

The DT&Ts came to the immediate rescue during the pandemic and positively affected collaborative CSR_LOs by the mentor universities, but they have not evolved to a level where offline learning can be replaced entirely. Hence, it can be inferred that a hybrid model is preferable. The study also improves the understanding of how DT&Ts are being harnessed to aid collaborative learning in fulfilling the mentors' CSR in fatal emergencies. The purpose is to equip the education system through mentorship so that universities can sustain, innovate and grow even in trying times. Also, it discusses the dynamics of various DT&Ts for creating a sustainable learning environment and utilizing them to make the teaching prolific and influential.

There is a scarcity of literature regarding the learning outcomes realized through CSR initiatives and collaboration between mentor-mentee institutions. There is a need to understand how these knowledge exchanges continued despite the physical restrictions during the pandemic. In this direction, this study helps to understand how the DT&Ts played a critical role in continuing learning and keeping abreast in a knowledge society from the perspective of resource-based view (RBV) in these precarious situations.

This paper aims to explore the educational potential of “cloud computing” (CC), and how it could be exploited in enhancing engagement among educational researchers and educators to better understand and improve their practice, in increasing the quality of their students' learning outcomes, and, thus, in advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) in a higher education context.

Adoption of the ideals of SoTL is considered an important approach for salvaging the higher education landscape around the world that is currently in a state of flux and evolution as a result of rapid advances in information and communications technology, and the subsequent changing needs of the digital natives. The study is based on ideas conceptualised from reading several editorials and articles on server virtualisation technology and cloud computing in several journals, with the eSchool News as the most important one. The paper identifies two cloud computing tools, their salient features and describes how cloud computing can be used to achieve the ideals of SoTL.

The study reports that the cloud as a ubiquitous computing tool and a powerful platform can enable educators to practise the ideals of SoTL. Two of the most useful free “cloud computing” applications are the Google Apps for Education which is a free online suite of tools that includes Gmail for e‐mail and Google Docs for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and Microsoft's cloud service (Live@edu) including the SkyDrive. Using the cloud approach, everybody can work on the same document at the same time to make corrections as well as improve it dynamically in a collaborative manner.

Cloud computing has a significant place in higher education in that the appropriate use of cloud computing tools can enhance engagement among students, educators, and researchers in a cost effective manner. There are security concerns but they do not overshadow the benefits.

The paper provides insights into the possibility of using cloud computing delivery for originating a new instructional paradigm that makes a shift possible from the traditional practice of teaching as a private affair to a peer‐reviewed transparent process, and makes it known how student learning can be improved generally, not only in one's own classroom but also beyond it.

Collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity are the most essential Cs of education. However, at present, these Cs are interlinked with technology to make it more effective and reliable. Educational technology infuses higher education, many people use it on a daily basis. Students are eager to adopt such technologies that help them in academia. Hence, this study aims to investigate how cloud computing adoption influences the academic performance of students by incorporating innovative, knowledge, economic and technological factors in the model.

The data are collected by using the survey method and the five-point Likert scale is used for this purpose. The statistical techniques applied to the data set were confirmatory factor analysis and partial least square structural equation modeling.

All dimensions have been observed to have a positive association with perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. On the other hand, the innovative factors which include relative advantage and complexity have a negative impact on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness except for compatibility. Moreover, economic factors, all have a negative relationship. Finally, research shows that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have a direct and significant relationship with cloud computing adoption among students, which ultimately predicts their academic performance.

Present research makes the following vital contributions; first, focus on the role of innovative factors, economical, technological and knowledge factors together that were previously largely ignored. Second, it extends the model of technology acceptance model for analyzing the cloud computing adoption pattern among university students. Finally, this study uses PLS-SEM for analyzing the relationship.

Providing quality education with the help of technologies in order to create global competitiveness among the students is the current trend in the education field. This research attempts to investigate following objectives: (1) the effect of students' perceived benefits and adoption intention of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) on their satisfaction; (2) the effect of students' perceived benefits of TEL on their adoption intention of TEL; (3) the mediating and moderating effect of students' perceived benefits of TEL in the link between students' adoption intention and satisfaction to TEL.

The primary data were collected from 600 undergraduate and postgraduate students, particularly those who are using TEL for at least one year. The authors used purposive sampling technique with “criterion variable”.

Results indicated that students' perceived benefits and adoption intention of TEL have significant and positive influence on their satisfaction. Direct effect was also found between perceived benefits and adoption intention of students. Authors also concluded that mediating and moderating effect of students' perceived benefits of TEL in the link between students' adoption intention and satisfaction for TEL was found significant and positive.

There is a huge lack of empirical studies available in the knowledge domain explaining the significance and implication of TEL in higher education in the state of Chhattisgarh, India.

This study aims to adopt cloud technology and develop a “cloud bookcase system” to make it possible to provide consistent mobile reading experiences to allow readers to use all kinds of mobile devices to read e-books.

This study implements a cloud bookcase and uses four indicators (system quality, information quality, service quality, user satisfaction) to evaluate the system for reading e-books.

After completing the system, the authors used a questionnaire to evaluate the system. The results show that the quality can meet the needs and satisfaction of users. Subsequent interviews with some of the participants also reveal the biggest concerns of readers include library policy, resources and system quality.

System quality, information quality, service quality and satisfaction are adopted as the indicators to assess the ratings from people using mobile devices to read e-books on the cloud bookcase system developed in this study to evaluate whether the cloud bookcase system is a successful information system as well as the relations between mobile device factors and user ratings. The results indicate that the ratings from more than half of the readers for the system, as shown in the various indicators, achieve more than 60%. From the interview results, the results show that some participants also reveal there is still room for improvement in some areas.

This study implements a cloud bookcase and there are three contributions: (1) the cloud bookcase system developed in this study based on related theories proves able to meet the needs of users, (2) this system had high ratings for all four indicators, (3) the interview responses reveal that most people regard system quality as the most important, and some of the people value some of the items more, including library policy, readers' interests and more resources, especially the number of e-books available.

This research aims to demonstrate the extension of actor engagement to include human–environmental engagement within broader socioecological systems.

This work takes the perspective of Neo-animist Ontology which posits that since non-human biotic entities act as ecological and cultural resource integrators they should be considered as actors. In addition, the present article uses the concept of Nature’s Contributions to People, here renamed Nature’s Contributions to Humans (NCHs) to demonstrate the complex cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions of human–environmental interaction. The work also draws on existing concepts of actor engagement within multilevel socioecological systems.

This study offers a conceptual framework within which to understand how the complex interactions between humans and natural entities produce human–environmental engagement. It also provides evidence for three forms of human–environmental engagement, that is, purposeful involvement between humans and nature (natural ecosystems and non-human bioactors) with cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions. These engagement types have been termed: Nature–human regulating engagement; Nature–human material and cultural engagement; and Mindful engagement with nature. As this work shows, they arise due to human–environmental interactions involving the three forms of NCHs (regulating, material and non-material) and sustainable practices through which the environment and humans exert mutual influence upon one another. Additionally, this work identifies key focal actors and the novel, creative practices they implement to re-shape inter-industrial service ecosystems so demonstrating many-to-many A2A interactions within a socioecological system.

Future areas of research include in-depth investigation of the psychological (emotional-sensorial) processes of human engagement with nature and examination of the perspectives of non-human bioactors in human-initiated engagement with nature.

This study takes our understanding of engagement beyond its current focus on human-centric service ecosystems to include human–environmental engagement in socioecological systems. This involves the novel extension of the concept of an actor to include non-human biological agents involved in the provision of NCHs and enables an examination of how these so-called bioactors interact—directly or indirectly—with human actors. A further innovation here is the simultaneous zooming in and zooming out on actor engagement to gain a truly multilevel perspective.

Corrosion of steel in marine environments poses a significant economic and environmental challenge because of its detrimental effects on marine structures and equipment. Traditional chemical inhibitors that mitigate corrosion often introduce harmful substances into the environment. As a result, there is a growing interest in exploring eco-friendly alternatives, such as plant-derived inhibitors, to reduce the environmental impact of corrosion protection strategies. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of Phyllanthus urinaria extract as a green anti-corrosion additive for rebar steel in marine conditions.

Phyllanthus urinaria extract was prepared in the ethanol solution with the assistance of a sonicator. The steel’s surface upon addition of the extract was characterized using SEM, EDX and FTIR analysis. The electrochemical corrosion characteristics, including potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, were used to evaluate the inhibitory performance of the extract on steel under simulated marine conditions (3.5% NaCl solutions).

The results of this study showed that with Phyllanthus urinaria extract’s content of 0.02% in NaCl solution of 3.5%, the corrosion rate decreased to about 30% compared to the controlled sample. Measurements of the inhibitory mechanism analysis study for all solutions from 0 mg/L to 1.114 mg/L of polyphenol from Phyllanthus urinaria extract showed a significant reduction in rebar corrosion rate, especially with 0.2228 mg/L polyphenol. Reinforcement can increase corrosion inhibition by up to 30% compared to the control sample.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of using Phyllanthus urinaria extract as green inhibitor for protection of steel from the corrosion in the simulated marine solution. The protective mechanism for steel using Phyllanthus urinaria extract was investigated using the FTIR, SEM, EDX and electrochemical analysis. The results indicated that the polyphenols in the extract showed inhibition that could minimize the corrosion of reinforcement in marine environments.