• A multi-objective framework optimizes a hybrid PV-Wind-Hydrogen-Battery microgrid. • System design targets near-zero Loss of Power Supply Probability for EV charging. • Hybrid storage (Battery/H2) is proven essential for high reliability and resilience. • Comparative analysis reveals distinct optimal designs for Egypt and Turkey contexts. • Turkey achieves a lower LCOE ($0.0173/kWh) due to balanced wind and solar resources. The rapid electrification of transport demands EV charging stations supplied by clean, reliable power. This paper presents an optimal sizing framework for an off-grid hybrid renewable microgrid combining photovoltaic arrays, wind turbines, battery energy storage (BESS), and hydrogen energy storage (HESS) to achieve zero loss of power supply probability (LPSP = 0). A four-objective Indicator-Based Evolutionary Algorithm (IBEA) is used to minimize levelized cost of energy (LCOE), curtailment ratio (CR), and LPSP while maximizing renewable fraction (RF). The method is tested in two locations: Attaka, Suez Governorate (Egypt) and Yalova Province (Türkiye), quantifying how climate and finance affect sizing and cost. Türkiye attains a lower LCOE of $0.0173/kWh with RF = 53.03% and CR = 17.11%, versus Egypt's $0.0261/kWh, RF = 50.35%, and CR = 27.67%—a 51.3% cost advantage driven by balanced solar-wind resources and higher EV demand. Egypt requires substantially larger BESS capacity (227 units vs. 34) to manage solar variability due to its solar-dominant resource profile. Sensitivity analysis reveals that discount and inflation rates dominate LCOE variation (±18–23% impact), while wind speed and load demand drive operational performance (±15–18% impact). Critical break-even thresholds are 47.5–50% (Türkiye) and 27.75–30% (Egypt), indicating Egypt's greater financial fragility. All designs satisfy the strict zero-LPSP constraint (≤0.001%), confirming the effectiveness of coordinated battery–hydrogen storage for reliable, cost-effective EV charging across diverse climatic and economic contexts.

Amid increasingly stringent environmental governance, firms’ investment and financing maturity structure directly shapes liquidity risk exposure and capital chain resilience, thereby influencing the green transition and high-quality development. Exploiting the 2015 revision of China’s New Environmental Protection Law as a quasi-natural experiment and using panel data on A-share manufacturing firms from 2009 to 2021, this study implements a difference-in-differences approach to identify the effect of command-and-control environmental regulation on debt–investment maturity mismatch. Empirical results show that after China’s New Environmental Protection Law, maturity mismatch increases significantly among heavily polluting firms, which indicates a materially higher reliance on short-term funding to bridge long-horizon investment and therefore greater rollover and liquidity risk. Mechanism analyses show two channels, namely an increase in long-term investment and a tightening of credit, reflecting compliance-driven capital expenditures together with a contraction in long-maturity credit supply, which pushes firms toward short-term borrowing for longhorizon projects and raises rollover and liquidity risk. Heterogeneity analyses show that the mismatch effect is concentrated among private firms, younger firms, and larger firms, while no statistically significant adjustment is detected for state-owned or foreign-invested firms. These findings demonstrate that command-and-control environmental regulation strengthens compliance but may inadvertently exacerbate firms’ financial fragility through maturity mismatch. Author recommend establishing a coordination mechanism between enforcement and green finance by setting up earmarked credit lines, issuing green bonds, and providing government-backed guarantees to expand medium and long-term funding for pollutionintensive sectors, and by offering targeted support to private firms, early-stage growth firms, and entities with heavier financial burdens that are more severely affected.

Private schools in Zambia supplement the capacity of the public education system and contribute substantially to educational access at the primary and secondary levels. However, a significant proportion of these institutions face severe financial fragility driven by overdependence on tuition fees as a single and precarious revenue stream. This study examines the effect of revenue diversification on the financial sustainability of private schools in Lusaka Province, Zambia. Grounded in the Tuckman and Chang financial vulnerability model and Bowman's financial capacity framework, the study employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design (QUAN→qual). The target population comprised school owners, principals, bursars, and accountants employed at 594 registered private primary and secondary schools across the six districts of Lusaka Province. Using two-stage stratified random sampling guided by Yamane's formula at a 5% margin of error and 95% confidence level, 300 questionnaires were distributed, yielding 272 valid responses representing a response rate of 90.7%. Qualitative data were gathered through 15 purposively sampled semi-structured telephone interviews conducted until theoretical saturation was achieved. A Financial Sustainability Index (FSI) was computed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), with the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin statistic of 0.922 and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity confirming data suitability for factor analysis. The mean FSI of 0.53 (SD = 0.202) indicated moderate but fragile financial sustainability. Classification of sampled schools by FSI level revealed that 39% experienced normal financial sustainability, 39% unstable, 15.4% absolute, and 6.6% critical financial sustainability. Pearson correlation analysis, supported by bootstrap estimation with 5,000 resamples, revealed a strong, statistically significant positive relationship between revenue diversification and financial sustainability (r = 0.799, p < .001; BCa 95% CI: 0.753–0.850). Multiple regression analysis confirmed revenue diversification as the dominant predictor of financial sustainability (R² = 0.67; F(7,264) = 75.15; p < .001), with market competition significantly moderating the relationship between revenue diversification and financial sustainability. Qualitative findings strongly triangulated these results, with all participants consistently reporting that schools with diversified income streams beyond tuition fees achieved significantly greater financial stability. The study concludes that revenue diversification is not a peripheral financial strategy but a structural imperative for private schools in Zambia's volatile educational and economic environment. Immediate policy and institutional interventions are required to support its systematic development across the sector. This study recommends that private school administrators should develop and implement formal, resourced revenue diversification strategies that identify multiple income streams appropriate to their institutional context, resource base, and community environment.

Pricing capability and affordability management, together with the moderating influences of regulatory intensity and market competition, constitute theoretically important but empirically underexplored determinants of financial sustainability in private schools. This study investigates the direct influence of pricing capability and affordability management on financial sustainability, and the moderating roles of regulatory intensity and market competition on the financial sustainability of private schools in Lusaka Province, Zambia. Grounded in the Tuckman and Chang financial vulnerability model and Bowman's financial capacity framework, the study employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design (QUAN→qual). Quantitative data were collected from 272 valid survey questionnaire responses drawn from school owners, principals, bursars, and accountants at 594 registered private primary and secondary schools across the six districts of Lusaka Province, using two-stage stratified random sampling guided by Yamane's (1973) formula. Qualitative data were gathered through 15 purposively selected semi-structured telephone interviews conducted to theoretical saturation. A Financial Sustainability Index (FSI) was computed via Principal Component Analysis, with a mean FSI of 0.53 (SD = 0.202) reflecting moderate financial fragility across the sector. Pearson correlation analysis, supported by bias-corrected bootstrap estimation with 5,000 resamples, revealed a very weak and statistically insignificant direct relationship between pricing capability and affordability management and the FSI (r = -0.023; p = 0.702; BCa 95% CI: -0.14–0.11), indicating that H2 is not supported. The pricing items recorded neutral mean scores ranging from 2.88 to 3.00, reflecting widespread awareness of pricing imperatives without systematic strategic implementation. However, PROCESS Macro moderation analysis (Model 2; R² = 0.29; F(7,264) = 15.36; p < .001) revealed important contextual findings: market competition had significant positive direct effects on financial sustainability (B = 0.25; SE = 0.03; t = 9.96; p < .001), but regulatory intensity and market competition did not significantly moderate the pricing–sustainability relationship. Moderation analysis of other financial sustainability determinants revealed that market competition significantly amplified the effect of revenue diversification on financial sustainability, while both regulatory intensity and market competition significantly moderated the governance–sustainability relationship. Qualitative findings provided critical contextual explanation for the pricing null finding, with participants describing uniformly reactive, informally determined, and competitively benchmarked pricing practices that are fundamentally disconnected from institutional cost structures and strategic financial planning. The study makes original contributions by documenting the first empirical evidence of the pricing–sustainability null finding in Zambian private schools. This study concludes that by demonstrating important moderating boundary conditions imposed by regulatory and competitive environments across multiple financial sustainability determinants provides a rich qualitative account of the mechanisms through which these effects operate in practice. This study recommends that the Ministry of Education should assess the financial sustainability implications of the free education policy for the private school sector and develop complementary support mechanisms that reduce the competitive pressure on private schools to maintain fees below cost-adequate levels.

Poor Compliance With Radiotherapy Was Associated With Worse Survival Outcome in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer.

Association of Personal Credit Data With Financial Hardship and Treatment Outcomes in Patients With Multiple Myeloma.

Abstract. The research is concerned with a vital contemporary topic, which is financial sustainability and measuring its impact in reducing the financial fragility of the banking sector in Iraq (Khaleej Commercial Bank). The research also addresses the problem of the bank’s lack of interest in studying and determining financial sustainability, and determining its impact on financial fragility, and the aim of the research is to analyze the reality of financial sustainability. And its impact on financial fragility. The elements of financial sustainability (investment of capital and time, possibility of making profit, continuous financial review, planning, commitment, good management and teamwork) and their impact on financial fragility were relied upon. The research followed the descriptive analytical approach in presenting the research topics, and the comprehensive inventory method in determining the sample size, as the sample size reached (69) individuals, and the researcher used a number of statistical methods to analyse the research hypotheses. Based on the research results, the importance of financial sustainability in minimizing financial fragility within the studied research sample is clarified. In addition, the study has resulted in several recommendations, of which the main highlight is the need to strengthen the bank's ability to plan for a large number of different situations.

This paper develops a conceptual analytical framework to explain the coexistence of economic growth with rising inequality, financial fragility, and social exclusion in contemporary interestbased financial systems, a phenomenon described as the Paradox of Prosperity. Drawing on development economics, financial instability theory, and Islamic economic principles, the study examines how debt-driven financial deepening can promote aggregate growth while undermining distributive justice and systemic stability. The paper advances Islamic risk-sharing finance as an institutional alternative capable of addressing these structural contradictions. Rather than presenting Islamic finance solely as a normative critique, the study positions risk-sharing arrangements as a macro-financial framework with implications for stability, inclusion, and sustainable development. By linking Islamic finance principles to broader debates on financialization, inequality, and institutional quality, the paper extends Islamic finance analysis beyond micro-level instruments to system-level financial design. The study contributes to the literature by introducing the Paradox of Prosperity as a unifying conceptual lens, advancing Islamic finance theory through an emphasis on institutional design and risk-sharing, and offering policy-relevant insights aligned with the objectives of Shariah (maqasid al-Shariah) and the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in Muslim and developing economies.

Abstract This article examines the remunicipalisation of Naples’ water service to explain the outcomes of participatory governance experiments inspired by commons theory. Using process tracing and Fung’s Democracy Cube, it analyses how participatory mechanisms were designed, contested and reconfigured within ABC Napoli. Based on interviews, documents and media, the findings show how legal constraints, political tensions, financial fragility and civil society–institution relationships shaped outcomes. Participatory forums evolved from open deliberation to consultative bodies with limited influence, failing to institutionalise civic participation. The study argues that both remunicipalisation and its participatory practices are hyper-local phenomena, shaped by specific contextual configurations rather than by theoretical models.

Access to mental health care and its integration with primary care remain critical challenges worldwide. In France, these problems are compounded by fragmented provision, poor coordination, and limited reimbursement for psychotherapy, despite the country's high levels of health expenditure. This perspective examines how community health centers (centres de santé) can contribute to integrated care, understood as the systematic coordination of physical and mental health services across providers. We analyze the case of the Centre de Santé de Belleville in Paris as an illustration of how CDS can host significant mental health capacity for vulnerable populations, and explore why the model remains marginal in the French health system. We combine analysis of national policy reports, academic literature, and internal audit data from the Belleville center to situate CDS within French health system dynamics. A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) grid is used to summarize the model. The Belleville case illustrates that CDS can deliver integrated mental and primary care, with salaried teams of general practitioners, psychologists, and a psychiatrist serving a disproportionately vulnerable population. However, structural weaknesses - financial fragility, fragmented representation, reputational risks, and the enduring dominance of the self-employed, independent physician ("liberal medicine") - limit their wider diffusion. Policy windows linked to financing reform, workforce shortages, and broader frames such as sustainability occasionally elevate CDS on the agenda, but institutional path dependency keeps them peripheral. Community health centers in France illustrate how institutional legacies and professional power can constrain the adoption of organizational models aligned with policy goals. For international readers, the case underlines the importance of political economy and system values - in this case, liberal universalism - in shaping the possibilities for integrating mental and primary health care.

Logistics is the backbone of businesses across the world. Efficiency in logistics leads to measurable efficiency and has a major impact on the economy of a country. The Indian logistics sector has been in focus in recent times and policy-driven upgrades are underway. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain Technology (BT) are the main driving forces in this upgradation.  Despite a strong economic foundation, and a projected Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.7% until 2026 (Government of India, 2025), the logistics industry faces a paradox: high technological potential is severely undermined by low, uneven adoption rates (Nicolas de Bellefonds  et al., 2024). This study uses a systematic literature review and the integrated Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) and Task-Technology Fit (TTF) frameworks (Wong, S et al., 2024) to understand the critical barriers slowing down the deployment of AI and BT. The primary findings reveal that the most critical adoption barriers are organizational and environmental, and not technological. Specifically, the organizational dimension is stunted by the high economic friction within the heavily fragmented Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector (Amit Kapoor et al., 2025), which face immense capital expenditure demands (Li et al., 2024) and limited access to formal credit (a credit gap estimated at 24%) (SIDBI, 2025). Environmentally, the lack of standardized data protocols (Yadlapalli A, Rahman S, Gopal P (2022; Kaur, J.,  et al., 2022), lack of regulations  regarding Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) governance (NITI Aayog, 2020), and continuous physical infrastructure deficits (NLDSL, n.d.) together erode the perceived value and trustworthiness of these technologies. The analysis discovers that a strategic digital divide exists, wherein policy efforts like the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) are pulled down by bottom-up operational resistance stemming from financial fragility and human capital deficits (NITI Aayog, 2025; NLDSL, n.d.). The study proposes strategic recommendations, advocating operational expenditure (OpEx) models, compulsory data standardization, and timely regulatory clarity concerning DLT legal frameworks (NITI Aayog, 2020) to ensure India’s digital transformation efforts bear measurable improvements in logistics efficiency and cost reduction (currently 7.97% of GDP) (DPIIT/NCAER, 2025; ITLN, 2025).

This paper develops a dynamic framework for optimal household decisions regarding consumption, portfolio allocation, and insurance in the presence of jump-diffusion risk, imperfect market correlation, and insurance premium loading. Unlike models that address these choices in isolation, we jointly model financial assets, durable goods, and insurable shocks to capture the nonlinear interactions shaped by volatility, insurance costs, and macroeconomic policy. Simulation results show that insurance availability stabilizes consumption and investment, while higher premiums or incomplete markets trigger precautionary behavior — lowering consumption, reducing exposure to risky assets, and increasing reliance on durables for self-insurance. Importantly, the relationship between insurance cost and portfolio risk is nonmonotonic: as insurance becomes more expensive, households initially increase financial risk-taking, but eventually retreat from it when volatility and perceived background risk rise. Rising interest rates amplify these effects by heightening the demand for liquidity and further displacing both insurance uptake and investment. These findings offer policy-relevant insights into how financial fragility and insurance frictions jointly influence household behavior under uncertainty.

General Background: Fiscal discipline constitutes a fundamental pillar of macroeconomic stability, ensuring balance between public revenues and expenditures while safeguarding fiscal sustainability. Specific Background: During 2014–2024, Iraq’s public finances were shaped by excessive reliance on oil revenues, security shocks, oil price volatility, and expansionary expenditure patterns. Knowledge Gap: Despite Iraq’s substantial oil wealth, limited empirical synthesis has examined the structural gap between fiscal potential and actual fiscal performance using integrated indicators of budget deficit, public debt, expenditure ratios, and tax revenues. Aims: This study analyzes the reality of fiscal discipline in Iraq over the period 2014–2024 and evaluates its role in explaining persistent budget deficits, rising public debt, and weak revenue diversification. Results: The findings confirm a structural imbalance characterized by recurrent deficits exceeding international benchmarks in several years, public debt ratios reaching critical levels, government expenditure consistently surpassing the 30% safety threshold of GDP, dominance of current over investment spending, and marginal tax contributions rarely exceeding 2% of GDP. Fiscal performance remained highly procyclical, expanding during oil booms and deteriorating during shocks, thereby reinforcing financial fragility. Novelty: The study provides a comprehensive indicator-based assessment linking fiscal rules, expenditure structure, debt dynamics, and revenue composition within a unified analytical framework for Iraq. Implications: Achieving fiscal sustainability requires expenditure rationalization, strengthening non-oil revenues, institutionalizing fiscal rules, and adopting structural reforms to reduce oil dependency and restore long-term macroeconomic stability. Highlights: Recurrent Imbalances Were Closely Tied to Oil Price Volatility and Security Shocks. Government Spending Frequently Exceeded Internationally Accepted Safety Ratios Relative to GDP. Non-Oil Revenue Mobilization Remained Structurally Weak Despite Periods of Revenue Expansion. Keywords: Fiscal Discipline; Budget Deficit; Public Debt; Oil Revenue Dependency; Fiscal Sustainability

This paper examines the evolution of the Portuguese residential real estate market during the first twenty-five years of the 21st century, focusing on the short-run determinants of housing transaction values. Using quarterly data from 2000 to 2025, the study applies an econometric time-series framework that explicitly addresses non-stationarity. The model evaluates the dynamic effects of macroeconomic performance, housing credit conditions, indicators of household financial stress, interest rates, confidence measures and demographic factors. Results show that housing market dynamics in Portugal are predominantly driven by GDP growth, with effects persisting across several quarters. Credit-related variables, particularly housing lending conditions and indicators of household financial fragility, exert significant influence. In contrast, short-term interest rates, confidence indicators and immigration flows do not exhibit statistically significant independent short-run effects. The findings highlight the relevance of macroeconomic and financial channels in shaping housing market fluctuations, supporting the need for coordinated housing and macroprudential policies to mitigate cyclical risks. The study provides a long-term empirical assessment of housing market dynamics in a Southern European economy that experienced financial crises, sovereign debt adjustment and post-pandemic recovery, integrating macroeconomic and financial determinants within a unified short-run analytical framework.

This article argues that Scotland’s universities have undergone a profound but largely unacknowledged transformation amounting to an administrative ‘silent coup’. Over three decades, governance has shifted from collegial, scholar-led institutions to managerial, performance-driven organisations shaped by New Public Management logics. Universities came to frame themselves as global businesses, prioritising property expansion, branding, and international fee income over academic autonomy and intellectual community. Performance indicators replaced professional judgment, undermining scholarly freedom, deskilling academic labour, and incentivising short-term, instrumental decision-making. The consequences have been demoralised staff, disillusioned students, financial fragility, and the erosion of the university as a public good. The article concludes that recovery requires dismantling the pseudo-market system: restoring democratic internal governance, ending intrusive performance metrics, and funding universities as unified academic communities rather than collections of measurable units. Trust in scholarly purpose, not managerial control, is essential to rebuild a sustainable and genuinely vibrant higher education system in Scotland.

The volatility of both exogenous and endogenous nature spurs a reconsideration of traditional approaches to financial management, particularly in relation to the debt component of capital structure. This article presents a theoretical analysis of the role and functions of debt within the capital structure under conditions of increasing economic uncertainty. It is substantiated that debt serves not only as a source of financial resources but also as a strategic lever for adaptation to shifts in the external environment. Considering current challenges, such as rising interest rates, inflationary pressures, currency instability, and the digitalization of financial markets, the study critically assesses classical approaches to capital structure optimization, emphasizing the need to balance the benefits of financial leverage with the risks of financial fragility. The article systematizes the main theoretical frameworks, including the trade-off theory, pecking order theory, agency theory and signaling theory, and evaluates its applicability under modern conditions. A classification of debt instruments is proposed based on criteria such as funding source, maturity, servicing mechanism, collateralization and degree of innovation, considering their practical relevance in unstable environments. Particular attention is paid to the integration of ESG factors and digital technologies into debt financing strategies. The study concludes that debt, in the contemporary context, is transforming from a tool of growth into a component of financial resilience. The findings may prove valuable for companies developing financing strategies under high uncertainty, as well as for researchers exploring mechanisms to ensure corporate sector stability amid macroeconomic fluctuations. Future research will focus on the empirical analysis of optimal capital structure configurations across industries in the context of macroeconomic instability.

Abstract After decades of macroeconomic instability, in the last twenty years the Peruvian economy seems to have finally stabilised around relatively high growth rates with price stability. This good performance was achieved within a policy framework aligned with the New Macroeconomic Consensus. However, the downside of this process was a sustained current account deficit and a continuous increase in external indebtedness (both in terms of foreign direct investment and portfolio investments). Even when the terms of trade were favourable, Peru did not manage to balance its external accounts. The chronic current account deficit and the sustained growth above the balance-of-payment equilibrium growth rate suggest, first, that Peru’s good economic performance is not sustainable and, second, that there are deep structural elements underlying this lack of sustainability. We build upon Kregel’s (2004) extension to the open economy of Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis to define a set of indicators aimed at gauging Peru’s external financial fragility. We find that in the period 2000–9 there is a strong structural tendency for the Peruvian non-financial private sector to oscillate between a speculative and a Ponzi situation, where net exports and remittances are not enough to face the debt services, thereby leading to a continuous increase of external indebtedness. We conclude the paper by linking Peru’s external financial fragility to the structure of its economy, which is a result of historical processes that can only be modified over a long time period if a set of active policies are deployed and sustained.

Although progress has been made nationally in terms of drinking water coverage, access remains a significant challenge in Togo's secondary cities, particularly in Noèpé and Kovié. These areas are experiencing rapid urbanization and sustained population growth, which is putting increasing pressure on often dilapidated infrastructure. This study aims to examine the institutional, regulatory and organizational mechanisms that shape water governance in Noèpé and Kovié, to identify the main obstacles and potential pathways towards equitable and sustainable access to drinking water. The research combined a literature review with qualitative fieldwork, including 67 semi-structured interviews and focus groups with institutional actors, municipal authorities and community association. Thematic analysis was used to triangulate institutional discourse, policy documents and community perspectives. The findings reveal that governance is hindered by institutional fragmentation, weak inter-institutional coordination, compounded by centralized governance. Community-based models, although widespread, suffer from lack of professionalization, financial fragility, weak community participation and conflicts interest. Infrastructure deficits, dependence on ad hoc external funding, and limited regulation exacerbate service inequalities. To address these challenges, this study concludes that water governance in secondary cities must be adapted to institutional and regulatory frameworks while taking local specifics into account. Strengthening institutional and community capacities, updating stakeholder mapping, developing participatory governance mechanisms and establishing shared governance mechanisms are essential. Local master plan aligned with urban planning strategies are recommended to anticipate demographic pressures and climate variability. Such reforms would help to ensure sustainable access to drinking water.

In a circular spiral, the hype surrounding artificial intelligence and the boom in investments by and market capitalisation of artificial intelligence firms have fed into each other. However, there are signs of emerging concern as evidence accumulates that current trends do not back the AI hype, triggering fears that go beyond just those related to an unwinding of the stock boom. , making the The structure that the AI hype has built is much more fragile, and the impact of a downturn that much more damaging.

This article posits a theory of financial regulation based on Minsky’s concept of survival constraint and the Financial Instability Hypothesis. Recurrent financial collapses led modern States to create institutions designed to stop enforcing the penalties related to the survival constraint—insolvency—on commercial banks. Governments provide backup liquidity via central banks (lender/market maker of last resort) and bailouts through deposit guarantee schemes, but, in compensation, impose regulations on financial institutions. These rules try to emulate the prudent behavior regulators expect those agents would have adopted if they were still subject to the cash restrictions of the survival constraint. However, over time, the comfort of immunity from insolvency stimulates moral hazard, flaws, and financial innovations that weaken the effectiveness of regulation. As the financial markets evolve, creditors and debtors, driven by profit, make increasingly riskier allocative decisions as they introduce new products and services that comply with regulatory rules but increase financial fragility. Therefore, authorities must review regulations permanently to mitigate this behavior and deliver financial stability as a public good.