General Background: Transparency has become a central principle in modern information institutions, particularly university libraries that aim to provide equitable access to knowledge and digital resources. Specific Background: In the context of digital transformation, libraries are increasingly expected to implement transparent policies and procedures to ensure that users can access information services fairly and efficiently. Knowledge Gap: Despite growing attention to transparency and digital inclusion in library science, limited empirical studies have examined how transparency practices relate to digital justice within university library environments. Aims: This study investigates the relationship between transparency practices and the achievement of digital justice in the Central Library of the University of Karbala. Results: Using a survey method with 183 beneficiaries and statistical analysis including structural equation modeling, the findings demonstrate a significant relationship between transparency practices and digital justice, with transparency explaining approximately 45% of the variance in digital justice outcomes. Dimensions such as information accessibility, accountability, and community participation show notable associations with equitable digital service provision. Novelty: The study integrates the concepts of organizational transparency and digital justice within a single empirical framework in the context of an academic library. Implications: The findings provide evidence that transparent governance, accessible information channels, and participatory practices can support equitable digital access and improve users’ experiences with library services in higher education institutions. Keywords: Transparency Practices, Digital Justice, Academic Libraries, Information Accessibility, Digital Inclusion Key Findings Highlights Transparency dimensions demonstrate measurable relationships with equitable digital access in library services. Accessibility and accountability mechanisms receive stronger user responses than disclosure practices. Institutional governance practices support inclusive digital resource availability for library beneficiaries.

General Background The rapid expansion of digital technologies in education, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, has increased the need for systematic evaluation of technology integration in school environments. Specific Background In science education, digital media such as multimedia presentations, simulations, and online learning platforms are increasingly recognized as important instructional resources aligned with international e-learning standards. Knowledge Gap Despite this development, limited empirical evidence exists regarding the actual level of digital media incorporation in intermediate-level science classrooms within specific regional educational contexts. Aims This study examines the level of digital media integration in science teaching in intermediate schools in Diyala Governorate, Iraq, using internationally recognized e-learning standards as an analytical framework. Results Using a descriptive-analytical survey design and a structured questionnaire administered to science teachers, the findings indicate a moderate-to-low level of digital media usage, with teachers primarily relying on basic tools such as presentation slides and instructional videos. Advanced digital applications, including simulations and interactive technologies, are less frequently used. Teachers also reported significant barriers, including unstable internet connectivity, electricity interruptions, limited institutional support, and insufficient professional development opportunities. Novelty The study provides an empirical assessment of digital media practices in science classrooms through the lens of global e-learning competency frameworks. Implications The findings highlight the need for improved digital infrastructure, institutional policy alignment, and sustained professional training programs to support the systematic adoption of digital learning practices in science education. Keywords: Digital Media Integration, Science Education, E Learning Standards, Technology Integration, Teacher Readiness Key Findings Highlights Teachers rely mainly on presentations and instructional videos rather than advanced digital applications. Structural barriers such as internet instability and electricity interruptions remain major constraints. Positive teacher attitudes toward digital practices persist despite limited technological implementation.

General Background Project management literature recognizes project sponsors as key stakeholders responsible for strategic guidance and executive support throughout the project lifecycle. Specific Background During periods of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic and regional political instability, many telecommunications projects experienced severe delays and declining stakeholder confidence. Knowledge Gap Although prior studies emphasize the strategic importance of project sponsors, limited research explains how sponsor involvement contributes to recovering delayed internal projects during crisis conditions. Aims This study examines the role of project sponsorship in managing the recovery of a delayed internal project at Korek Telecom. Results The findings show that active sponsor engagement strengthened stakeholder coordination, improved communication channels, and restored organizational trust during the recovery process. The sponsor also assumed operational leadership responsibilities by guiding process redesign, managing risks, and aligning team roles through structured governance tools such as the revised business case, work breakdown structure, RACI matrix, compressed project schedule, and risk register. Novelty The study highlights a dual sponsorship model in which the project sponsor functions not only as a strategic authority but also as an operational leader during project recovery. Implications These findings provide practical insights for telecommunications organizations and other industries by demonstrating how sponsor-led governance mechanisms support structured decision-making and coordinated recovery strategies in delayed projects. (219 words) Keywords: Project Sponsorship, Delayed Projects, Telecom Project Management, Project Recovery, Risk Governance Key Findings Highlights Sponsor leadership supported coordinated recovery actions during a delayed telecom project. Governance tools structured team alignment, accountability, and risk management. Strategic authority combined with operational guidance during crisis project recovery.

Background: Biochemical indicators and endocrine factors, particularly thyroid hormones and sex hormones, are closely related to bone metabolism and skeletal regulation in women. Knowledge Gap: Although several biomarkers are known to participate in bone metabolism, the combined profile of biochemical and hormonal parameters associated with osteoporosis in women remains insufficiently documented in certain regional populations. Aims: This study investigated selected biochemical and hormonal biomarkers in women diagnosed with osteoporosis in Al-Diwaniyah Governorate. Results: A total of 76 women aged 25–45 years participated in the study and were divided into an osteoporosis group (46 patients) and a healthy control group (30 individuals). Statistical analysis showed significant reductions in body mass index, serum calcium, and vitamin D levels in osteoporotic women compared with controls. In contrast, thyroid-related hormones, including thyroid-stimulating hormone and thyroxine, were significantly elevated in the patient group. Additionally, estrogen and follicle-stimulating hormone concentrations were significantly lower in women with osteoporosis. Novelty: The study provides an integrated evaluation of biochemical and endocrine biomarkers related to bone metabolism among women within the studied population. Implications: These findings highlight the importance of hormonal and biochemical assessment in understanding metabolic alterations associated with osteoporosis and may support clinical laboratory monitoring strategies for women at risk of bone metabolism disorders. Keywords: Osteoporosis, Bone Metabolism, Thyroid Hormones, Vitamin D, Women Key Findings Highlights Reduced calcium, vitamin D, and body mass index detected in affected participants. Elevated thyroid-related hormones identified in the patient group. Lower estrogen and follicle-stimulating hormone concentrations observed in osteoporotic women.

General Background: Organizational justice has increasingly been recognized as a fundamental organizational value shaping employee attitudes and behavioral responses within modern institutions. Specific Background: In public sector organizations, job slack represents a persistent behavioral problem characterized by reduced effort, low motivation, and diminished engagement, often associated with perceptions of unfair treatment. Knowledge Gap: Despite extensive discussion of organizational justice, limited empirical studies integrate its distributive, procedural, and interactional dimensions in explaining job slack within educational administrative institutions. Aims: This study aims to measure and analyze the relationship and role of organizational justice dimensions in reducing job slack among employees of the General Directorate of Education in Nineveh Governorate. Results: Using a descriptive-analytical approach with questionnaire data from 75 employees and statistical analysis via SPSS, findings reveal high levels of perceived organizational justice and job slack awareness, alongside a significant correlation (0.615) between the variables. Organizational justice explains 52% of variance in job slack, with procedural justice showing the strongest contribution compared to distributive and interactional justice. Novelty: The study proposes an integrated analytical framework linking multiple organizational justice dimensions simultaneously to job slack mechanisms within a public education context. Implications: The findings support adopting fairness-based administrative policies, transparent procedures, and equitable resource distribution to reduce disengagement behaviors and strengthen organizational commitment, providing practical guidance for public sector management and organizational behavior research. Highlights:• Organizational Fairness Dimensions Show Strong Statistical Association With Reduced Disengagement Behaviors.• Procedural Mechanisms Demonstrate the Highest Contribution Among Examined Organizational Practices.• Integrated Analytical Modeling Explains Substantial Variance in Employee Reduced-Effort Patterns. Keywords: Organizational Justice, Job Slack, Procedural Justice, Distributive Justice, Interactional Justice

General Background: Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services integrated into Online Travel Agent (OTA) platforms have experienced rapid growth, particularly among Millennials and Generation Z, reflecting evolving digital financial behavior. Specific Background: Despite increasing adoption, OTA PayLater services encounter challenges related to service quality, promotion, risk perception, and user satisfaction, which shape trust and reuse intention. Knowledge Gap: Prior studies report inconsistent findings regarding the relationships among service quality, risk perception, promotion, user satisfaction, trust, and reuse intention, and limited research simultaneously examines these variables within the OTA PayLater context using trust as a mediating construct. Aims: This study analyzes the relationships between service quality, risk perception, promotion, and user satisfaction on trust and reuse intention toward OTA PayLater services. Results: Using a quantitative cross-sectional design and Structural Equation Modeling with Maximum Likelihood estimation on 120 respondents, the findings indicate that service quality, promotion, and user satisfaction significantly affect trust, while risk perception is not significant. Furthermore, service quality, user satisfaction, and trust significantly affect reuse intention, with trust demonstrating the strongest relationship. Novelty: This research integrates four antecedent variables within a single SEM framework in the OTA PayLater setting and empirically positions trust as a central determinant of continued usage. Implications: The results underscore the strategic importance of stable systems, transparent processes, responsive service, and sustained trust-building initiatives to support continued adoption of OTA PayLater services. Highlights: Trust shows the strongest positive relationship with continued usage decisions. Perceived risk does not demonstrate statistical significance in predicting behavioral outcomes. Customer satisfaction contributes to loyalty behavior alongside system reliability factors. Keywords: OTA PayLater, Service Quality, Trust, Reuse Intention, Structural Equation Modeling

General Background: Product quality control is a critical factor in export-oriented furniture manufacturing, where defect reduction and process capability are central to sustaining competitiveness. Specific Background: PT XYZ, a wood furniture manufacturer producing beach chair model X for export, recorded an average defect rate of 8.65% during January–December 2025, with five Critical to Quality (CTQ) categories: cracked wood, uneven paint, loose weaving, loose fabric, and unattached nuts. Knowledge Gap: Although Six Sigma and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) are widely applied in manufacturing, their integrated application for systematic defect mapping and risk prioritization in beach chair production at PT XYZ had not been formally analyzed. Aims: This study aims to measure process capability, identify root causes of defects, and formulate prioritized improvement proposals using the DMAIC framework and FMEA. Results: From 3,007 units produced, 171 defective units were identified, yielding an average DPMO of 17,291 and a sigma level of 3.66. P-chart analysis revealed several out-of-control points, indicating special cause variation. FMEA evaluation showed the highest Risk Priority Number (RPN) of 343 for the failure mode “product proceeds without nut verification,” followed by undetected initial wood cracks (RPN 336) and uneven paint layers (RPN 252). Novelty: This study presents an integrated Six Sigma–FMEA roadmap that links statistical process control, root cause analysis, and structured risk prioritization in beach chair manufacturing. Implications: The proposed recommendations provide a data-driven reference for systematic quality control and support the company’s zero defect target in export furniture production. Highlights: Process capability averaged 3.66 sigma with 17,291 DPMO across 3,007 units. The most critical failure mode reached an RPN value of 343 in assembly operations. Statistical control charts identified multiple special-cause variations requiring corrective action. Keywords:Six Sigma, FMEA, DMAIC, Defect Reduction, Risk Priority Number

General Background: Interactive conversation skills and literacy are fundamental competencies in 21st-century elementary education, supporting communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. Specific Background: Fourth-grade students at SDN Tegal Kunir Lor II demonstrated low interactive conversation skills and literacy, associated with conventional instruction, minimal integration of digital technology, and limited collaborative learning practices. Knowledge Gap: Previous studies have examined Problem Based Learning (PBL), digital reading, or collaborative approaches independently, yet empirical evidence integrating these three components within a single experimental framework remains limited. Aims: This study analyzes the partial and simultaneous effects of PBL with collaborative digital reading on students’ interactive conversation skills and literacy. Results: Using a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control group design involving 40 students, multivariate analysis indicated a significant difference between groups (Pillai’s Trace = 0.858; F = 111.728; p < 0.05). Partial analysis showed significant differences in interactive conversation skills (F = 173.709; p < 0.05; R² = 0.821) and literacy (F = 2.376; p < 0.05; R² = 0.059). Novelty: The study integrates PBL, collaborative digital reading, and simultaneous multivariate analysis of communication and literacy outcomes in primary education. Implications: The findings recommend PBL with collaborative digital reading as an alternative instructional model to develop interactive communication and literacy competencies in elementary classrooms. Highlights• Multivariate analysis confirmed significant differences across both assessed competencies.• Experimental group demonstrated higher posttest mean scores than the control group.• Problem-solving activities combined with group-based digital texts supported measurable learning outcomes. KeywordsProblem Based Learning; Collaborative Digital Reading; Interactive Conversation Skills; Literacy; Elementary Education

General Background: Explanatory text writing is a fundamental literacy competence in elementary education requiring logical organization, causal reasoning, and structured academic language. Specific Background: Prior studies report that students experience difficulties in understanding explanatory text structure and cause–effect relationships, often due to limited interactive pedagogy and insufficiently engaging learning media. Knowledge Gap: Although collaborative learning, storybooks, and animation media have been examined separately, limited empirical research integrates these three approaches simultaneously within explanatory writing instruction at the elementary level. Aims: This study aims to examine the partial, simultaneous, and interaction effects of collaborative learning, storybooks, and animation media on sixth-grade students’ explanatory writing skills. Results: Using a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control group design involving 120 students across four public elementary schools, findings revealed significant effects of collaborative learning (F=78.239; p<0.05), storybooks (F=58.153; p<0.05), and animation media (F=96.504; p<0.05). Simultaneous regression analysis indicated a significant combined model (F=287.779; p<0.05), while factorial ANCOVA demonstrated a strong interaction effect (F=352.605; p<0.05; Partial Eta Squared=0.597). Novelty: This research provides empirical evidence of a collaborative–multimodal instructional model integrating social interaction, narrative scaffolding, and visual animation in explanatory text writing. Implications: The findings support the implementation of integrated collaborative learning supported by storybooks and animation media to foster structured reasoning, text organization, and sustainable written literacy development in elementary classrooms. Highlights Collaborative group work produced substantially higher posttest scores than conventional instruction. Narrative-based materials provided the strongest predictive contribution in the regression model. Multimodal integration generated a large interaction effect size in factorial ANCOVA analysis. KeywordsCollaborative Learning; Storybooks; Animation Media; Explanatory Writing; Elementary Education

General Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, presents heterogeneous clinical manifestations ranging from asymptomatic to severe conditions, necessitating reliable laboratory indicators for clinical stratification. Specific Background: Several diagnostic approaches, including RT-PCR and serological testing, are used to confirm infection; however, additional biomarkers such as IgM, IgG, C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and platelet count have been reported in hospitalized patients. Knowledge Gap: Limited data are available regarding the gradient patterns of serological and inflammatory biomarkers across non-severe and severe COVID-19 groups within a single hospitalized cohort. Aims: This study measured IgM, IgG, CRP, ferritin, ESR, and platelet levels and examined their association with disease severity among 58 RT-PCR–confirmed patients. Results: Non-severe cases constituted 86.21% of patients, while 13.79% were severe. IgM seropositivity was higher than IgG in both groups, reaching 100% in severe cases. IgG positivity increased after the first week of infection and was detected in 83.33% of severe patients. CRP levels were elevated in all non-severe cases, whereas ferritin and ESR were particularly increased in moderate cases. Platelet count, CRP, ferritin, and ESR were significantly higher in the severe group (p<0.05). Age showed a positive correlation with severity (r=0.379). Novelty: The study demonstrates a distinct biomarker gradient linking antibody dynamics and inflammatory indices with clinical severity in a defined hospitalized population. Implications: Combined assessment of IgM, IgG, CRP, ferritin, and ESR may support early risk stratification and clinical decision-making in COVID-19 management. Highlights: • Severe Cases Exhibited Markedly Elevated Crp, Ferritin, Esr, and Platelet Values Compared With Non-Severe Cases.• Igm Seropositivity Exceeded Igg Across Clinical Categories, Reaching Complete Detection in Critical Patients.• Increasing Age Showed a Positive Correlation With Worsening Clinical Classification. Keywords: COVID-19 Severity, Serological Biomarkers, Inflammatory Markers, C-Reactive Protein, Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate