Milestone Driven Agile Execution is a hybrid management framework where the empirical control component of agile development is retained but the prioritization of the backlog is done according to a macro or strategic (milestone) plan that drives the execution of the project. MDAX is method agnostic, in the sense that the development approach is not embedded in the execution mechanism but in the plan that drives it. This allows organizations using it to choose the development approach that suites them most,
The year 2026 represents a potential inflection point for Indonesia’s economic and development trajectory. After half a decade of post pandemic recovery, Indonesia has managed to preserve macroeconomic stability and sustain growth at around 5 percent. Yet this level of growth is increasingly insufficient for a rising middle-income economy facing structural constraints, technological disruption, environmental risks, and intensifying global uncertainty. Drawing on recent regional trends and insights from the World Development Report 2025, this paper argues that Indonesia’s core challenge is no longer growth per se, but the quality and composition of that growth. Regional deceleration in East Asia and the Pacific, rising trade protectionism, policy uncertainty, and automation driven labour market polarization form a fragile external backdrop for 2026. Domestically, Indonesia remains constrained by slow productivity growth, shallow industrialisation, high informality, skill mismatches, and continued dependence on primary commodities. The second year of the new administration introduces ambitious initiatives such as Free Nutritious Meals and mineral and agricultural downstreaming, which hold significant potential but also demand stronger fiscal discipline, environmental safeguards, and labour competency standards. The floods in Sumatra in 2025 further underscore the rising economic costs of weak environmental governance. This outlook concludes that without a decisive shift toward standards-based development encompassing infrastructure, human capital, labour markets, and environmental management Indonesia risks remaining stable without leaping forward. In this context, 2026 may determine whether Indonesia escapes stagnation or consolidates a higher quality development path.
Mohammad Hajipour, Hossein Ekramy Moghaddam, Mohammad Eskandari Sani
IntroductionRural sustainable development is a multifaceted challenge for spatial planning and management systems, requiring integrated strategies that harmonize economic, technological, environmental, and socio-cultural subsystems to foster cohesive growth. Effective approaches must also incorporate strategic planning and regulatory actions to ultimately achieve equitable rural development and reduce urban-rural disparities. In this context, global experiences increasingly support the adoption of green management as a viable pathway. Iran and its surrounding geographical regions face severe environmental challenges, including natural resource degradation, water scarcity, land degradation, and biodiversity loss. These pressures amplify the urgency of embracing green management, sustainable development, and the green industrial revolution—particularly in rural areas. The Deyhook district in Tabas County, South Khorasan Province, eastern Iran, exemplifies these challenges: chronic water scarcity, soil erosion, declining biodiversity, reliance on water-intensive agriculture, and weak waste and renewable energy management. For instance, due to climate change and prolonged droughts, among 16 villages with populations over 20 households, eight larger villages receive water via tanker trucks under rationing from Deyhook city, while the remaining eight face severe declines in spring and qanat yields. In many villages, agriculture has collapsed entirely, wells have been equipped with smart meters, and residents struggle to secure even basic domestic water supplies. Moreover, excessive groundwater extraction by coal mines at three geographically dispersed sites has led to the abandonment of villages such as Parudeh, Pikuh, and Nistan. If current trends continue, the long-term habitability of the region is at serious risk. Since the sustainability of human settlements fundamentally depends on residents’ livelihoods—and, by extension, on reliable and sustainable access to productive resources—proper management, particularly within a green management framework, can not only promote resource efficiency but also enhance the economic, social, and environmental resilience of these communities. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the rural settlements of Deyhook district based on green management principles and to propose practical solutions for transforming the current unsustainable conditions into a more resilient and sustainable future. MethodologyThis study is applied in purpose and descriptive in nature. The statistical population consists of two expert groups: regional experts and local experts and informed stakeholders. The first group—regional experts—includes seven members comprising technical staff from the Deyhook district administration and university academics with expertise in sustainable rural development. This group was responsible for identifying key criteria and sub-criteria related to rural green management and determining their relative weights using the Analytic Network Process (ANP), a multi-criteria decision-making method suitable for capturing interdependencies among factors. The second group—local experts and informed stakeholders—comprises village administrators (Dehyars) and members of Islamic Councils from all 16 villages in the Deyhook district. In each village, a local expert panel of 2 to 4 members was formed. These panels participated in assessing the current status of their villages regarding green management indicators through structured questionnaires based on the Rural Settlement Evaluation Framework. Data collected from these assessments were analyzed using the MARCOS (Measurement Alternatives and Ranking according to Compromise Solution) method to rank villages based on their performance in green management. Finally, to identify actionable strategies for improvement, insights from both expert groups were integrated and structured within the SOAR framework (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results), which emphasizes positive, vision-driven planning. This mixed-method approach—combining ANP for weighting, MARCOS for ranking, and SOAR for strategy development—ensures a robust, participatory, and context-sensitive evaluation, supporting both diagnostic analysis and practical intervention in rural sustainability planning. FindingsAt the macro level, the criterion "Residents' Environmental Ethics and Culture" holds the highest weight (0.166), indicating that experts view behavioral change, awareness, and the development of a sustainability culture as the most fundamental drivers of successful green management. Using the MARCOS method, villages in the Deyhook district of Tabas County were ranked based on green management criteria, revealing significant differences in sustainable development levels and performance. Esfandiar village ranked first with the highest efficiency index (f(Ki) = 0.665), emerging as a model for green management—likely due to stronger sustainable infrastructure, effective waste management, access to modern technologies, and a participatory environmental culture. Esfahk (0.611) and Chirok (0.607) followed in second and third place, reflecting relatively strong sustainability performance. Overall, higher-ranked villages (1–6) demonstrate better outcomes in infrastructure, renewable energy, education, and environmental culture. Key strengths include the region’s largest wildlife refuge with high biodiversity, vast coal reserves, and unique geotourism sites—offering solid foundations for green economy, sustainable tourism, and new energy initiatives. External opportunities, such as access to innovative climate and energy practices and engagement of foreign tourists in environmental stewardship, enable knowledge transfer and cultural investment. The defined aspirations—such as green management in all villages, full environmental compatibility, reduced resource waste, and full sustainability—reflect a shift from purely physical development toward a holistic, integrated sustainability model. Discussion and ConclusionThis study develops and applies an integrated framework for rural green management in Deyhook, a desert region under environmental stress. Using MARCOS, significant performance disparities among 16 villages were revealed, with Esfandiar ranking highest and Razaviyeh and Zardgah lowest. Experts emphasized "environmental culture" and "infrastructure" as key drivers, reflecting the importance of behavioral change and sustainable systems. Natural assets and external opportunities support green development. Context-sensitive strategies—like solar energy, water recycling, and civic engagement—are proposed. By integrating theory, field assessment, and practical solutions, this study offers a replicable, holistic model for sustainable transformation in arid rural regions, supporting policy-making, equity, and community resilience through participatory, knowledge-integrated planning.
Purpose: The purpose of this research was to identify, modeling and scenario analysis of the acceptance factors of the Internet of Things in the supply chain of Iranian businesses.
Methodology: To conduct this research, we used both qualitative and quantitative strategies combined. The statistical population in both stages consisted of experts; besides, judgmental and snowball sampling methods were used. In the first stage, acceptance factors were identified through semi-structured interviews. In the second stage, using fuzzy cognitive mapping approach, the acceptance factors were modeled, and the scenario was analyzed.
Findings: The results of the first phase show 58 factors of Internet of Things acceptance, which are categorized into 17 sub-themes and 5 main themes. The second-stage results show that the theme of expertise enjoys the highest degree of influence, then the theme of technology readiness comes next. Also, the overlapping of forward and backward scenarios indicates the importance of expertise and technological readiness.
Originality: Since there is little understanding of the factors affecting the acceptance of the Internet of Things at the supply chain level of Iranian businesses, this research has been able to add to the literature of this field and to fill the gap by identifying, modeling, and analyzing the scenario of these factors.
Implications: Changing recruitment and hiring policies to find and hire qualified personnel, using in-service training tools, and having access to a technological roadmap are the most important strategies of the supply chain, which can lead to organizational expertise and readiness.
Economic growth, development, planning, Employee participation in management. Employee ownership. Industrial democracy. Works councils
Abstract Most Latin American countries entered the ranks of middle-income levels almost simultaneously with Japan and South Korea. However, while Japan and South Korea embarked on the path of economic development through technological innovation and industrial upgrading, Latin America fell into the middle-income trap. By examining the history of industrial and technological development in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, three representative countries in Latin America, this paper finds that the fundamental reasons for Latin America falling into the middle-income trap lie in the tension between the choice of industrialization path and primitive accumulation, as well as the institutional deficiencies in technology and industrial development. Latin America, which has fallen into the middle-income trap, finds it hard to upgrade its technology and is trapped in premature industrialization and the middle-technology trap. It can be said that Latin America has fallen into a double trap, which reinforces each other and forms a solid trap pattern. The warning from the Latin American experience is that late-developing countries need to maintain an open attitude during the process of technological catching up, build a complete technological innovation system, enhance industrial and technological governance capabilities, and seize the window of opportunity for technological and industrial upgrading. Otherwise, there is a significant risk of falling into the middle-income trap and even the double trap.
Political institutions and public administration - Asia (Asian studies only), Economic growth, development, planning
Tat-Dat Bui, Hien Minh Ha, Thi Phuong Thuy Tran
et al.
This study is to build a causality model to implement energy security strategies (ESSs) in approaching a world-regions comparison. This study contributes to ESSs by indicating a set of valid attributes and those attributes are interrelationships in nature. There is major global interest in ESSs due to the pressure to ensure sustainable energy supply sources. An adequate energy source is decisive for ensuring stable economic growth, enhancing social development, and protecting the environment. Nonetheless, in reviewing the energy literature, generating strategic attributes is still lacking, which leads to difficulties for policymakers in building, executing, and assessing energy policies. This study utilizes a hybrid method: text mining, cluster analysis, fuzzy Delphi method, fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory, and entropy weight method. As a result, five aspects and 22 criteria from the data pool are validated. The causal model shows that the energy control system, strategic collaboration and technological capability are the priority. In practice, the effect aspects are waste-to-energy and energy resilience. Although the research trends on ESSs in different regions are quite similar, each continent still has unique concerns such as European countries with distributed energy resources, Asia and Oceania with decarbonization, African countries with new technologies, and Americas with energy planning.
Recently, Large Language Models (LLMs) have emerged as an alternative to training task-specific dialog agents, due to their broad reasoning capabilities and performance in zero-shot learning scenarios. However, many LLM-based dialog systems fall short in planning towards an overarching dialog goal and therefore cannot steer the conversation appropriately. Furthermore, these models struggle with hallucination, making them unsuitable for information access in sensitive domains, such as legal or medical domains, where correctness of information given to users is critical. The recently introduced task Conversational Tree Search (CTS) proposes the use of dialog graphs to avoid hallucination in sensitive domains, however, state-of-the-art agents are Reinforcement Learning (RL) based and require long training times, despite excelling at dialog strategy. This paper introduces a novel zero-shot method for controllable CTS agents, where LLMs guide the dialog planning through domain graphs by searching and pruning relevant graph nodes based on user interaction preferences. We show that these agents significantly outperform state-of-the-art CTS agents ($p<0.0001$; Barnard Exact test) in simulation. This generalizes to all available CTS domains. Finally, we perform user evaluation to test the agent's performance in the wild, showing that our policy significantly ($p<0.05$; Barnard Exact) improves task-success compared to the state-of-the-art RL-based CTS agent.
Anand Sahasranaman, Nishanth Kumar, Luis M. A. Bettencourt
India's urbanization is often characterized as particularly challenging and very unequal but systematic empirical analyses, comparable to other nations, have largely been lacking. Here, we characterize India's economic and human development along with changes in its personal income distribution as a function of the nation's growing urbanization. On aggregate, we find that India outperforms most other nations in the growth of various indicators of development with urbanization, including income and human development. These results are due in part to India's present low levels of urbanization but also demonstrate the transformational role of its cities in driving multi-dimensional development. To test these changes at the more local level, we study the income distributions of large Indian cities to find evidence for high positive growth in the lowest decile (poorest) of the population, enabling sharp reductions in poverty over time. We also test the hypothesis that inequality-reducing cities are more attractive destinations for rural migrants. Finally, we use income distributions to characterize changes in poverty rates directly. This shows much lower levels of poverty in urban India and especially in its largest cities. The dynamics of poverty rates during the recent COVID-19 pandemic shows both a high fragility of these improvements during a crisis and their resilience over longer times. Sustaining a long-term dynamic where urbanization continues to be closely associated with human development and poverty reduction is likely India's fastest path to a more prosperous and equitable future.
We explore the usage of large language models (LLM) in human-in-the-loop human-in-the-plant cyber-physical systems (CPS) to translate a high-level prompt into a personalized plan of actions, and subsequently convert that plan into a grounded inference of sequential decision-making automated by a real-world CPS controller to achieve a control goal. We show that it is relatively straightforward to contextualize an LLM so it can generate domain-specific plans. However, these plans may be infeasible for the physical system to execute or the plan may be unsafe for human users. To address this, we propose CPS-LLM, an LLM retrained using an instruction tuning framework, which ensures that generated plans not only align with the physical system dynamics of the CPS but are also safe for human users. The CPS-LLM consists of two innovative components: a) a liquid time constant neural network-based physical dynamics coefficient estimator that can derive coefficients of dynamical models with some unmeasured state variables; b) the model coefficients are then used to train an LLM with prompts embodied with traces from the dynamical system and the corresponding model coefficients. We show that when the CPS-LLM is integrated with a contextualized chatbot such as BARD it can generate feasible and safe plans to manage external events such as meals for automated insulin delivery systems used by Type 1 Diabetes subjects.
Although small-scale dance events are popular as a postmodern socialization tool for modern people, little is known about participants’ behavioral intentions in active small-scale dance events. This research examined the hierarchical relationship between event image, event satisfaction, event identity, and behavioral intentions, including re-participation intention and positive word-of-mouth (WoM) behavior, in a repeated small-scale dance event. A total of 412 participants of the Eskisehir Dance Festival (EDF), a repeated small-scale dance event, were reached by the convenience sampling method. Research data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). First, the model’s compatibility with the data was evaluated by applying confirmatory factor analysis to the model, which includes all research structures. AVE, Cronbach alpha, and CR values were analyzed for all constructs. The conceptual model of the research was analyzed using the AMOS v22. Event image is an important predictor of both event satisfaction (β =0.88; p <0.01) and event identity (β =0.46; p <0.01). In addition, event satisfaction significantly impacted event identity (β =0.76; p <0.01). Event identity is the predictor of re-participation intention (β =0.24; p <0.01) and positive WoM behavior (β =0.88; p <0.01). Finally, WoM behavior positively affected reparticipation intention (β =0.88; p <0,01). Research results made significant empirical contributions to the literature on repeated small-scale dance events. In addition, based on the research results, suggestions were presented to managers of small-scale dance events that they could use in their marketing strategies.
Economic growth, development, planning, Economics as a science
The article discusses the basic concepts of strategic planning in the Russian Federation, highlights the legal, financial and resource features that act as restrictions in decision making in the field of socio-economic development of municipalities. The analysis concluded that to design an adequate model of socio-economic development of municipalities is a very difficult task, particularly when the traditional approaches are applied. To solve the task, we proposed to use the semantic modeling as well as cognitive maps which are able to point out the set of dependencies that arise between factors having a direct impact on socio-economic development.
This study explores the benefits and challenges of integrating Artificial Intelligence with Agile software development methodologies, focusing on improving continuous integration and delivery. A systematic literature review and longitudinal meta-analysis of the retrieved studies was conducted to analyse the role of Artificial Intelligence and it's future applications within Agile software development. The review helped identify critical challenges, such as the need for specialised socio-technical expertise. While Artificial Intelligence holds promise for improved software development practices, further research is needed to better understand its impact on processes and practitioners, and to address the indirect challenges associated with its implementation.
Joint counteraction against international crime by all law enforcement agencies of different countries brings common results in eradicating this phenomenon in the world and reducing the number of crimes in a single state. This is one of the most relevant areas of international cooperation worldwide. That is why the issue of interaction in the field of law enforcement acquires special attention and relevance. That is why special attention is paid to the content of the concept of "interaction" and "interaction of law enforcement agencies". Today there is a significant increase in economic crime, with international transnational crime paying particular attention to economic crimes committed by foreigners. A significant role in countering this phenomenon is played by specially formed international institutions (bodies), namely: international organizations; international conferences; international commissions and committees. The most famous of these include the following: United Nations (UN) Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice; UN Office on Drugs and Crime; Council of Europe (Council of Europe Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures); European Committee on Crime Problems; International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), etc. The central body for combating international crime is the International Criminal Police Organization – Interpol, which began its activities after the entry into force (June 13, 1956). The purposes of Interpol are: to ensure and develop the widest possible mutual assistance between all criminal police agencies within the framework of the laws in force in the various countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; creation and development of institutions capable of successfully contributing to the prevention and suppression of criminal offenses (Art. 2 of the Interpol Charter). The structure of the internal organs of Interpol consists of: General Assembly; Executive Committee; General Secretariat; National Central Bureaus; Counselors; File Control Commission. INTERPOL maintains relations with many international organizations on issues related to its sphere of activity. Interpol maintains a National Central Bureau of Interpol in each of its member countries, through which international police cooperation is regulated. The National Central Bureau is an authorized police authority or entity with the status of an Interpol representative in its country. The main purpose of national central bureaus is to involve the police authorities of the country in the international fight against crime, to establish and maintain contacts with other national central bureaus and the General Secretariat of Interpol by ensuring a continuous, rapid and high-quality exchange of information. In Ukraine, such a unit is the National Central Bureau of Interpol, which operates within the structure of the National Police of Ukraine and organizes international cooperation of all law enforcement agencies of our state within the framework of the Organization. As part of combating crime, the National Central Bureau of Interpol cooperates with the State Migration Service of Ukraine, organizes cooperation, as well as initiates and coordinates operational and investigative activities aimed specifically at preventing and solving crimes, identifying and deporting from Ukraine persons – citizens of foreign countries involved in criminal activity, in particular members of transnational organized crime networks, persons who have committed sexual crimes against children, and the like. A special area of interaction is the fight against economic crimes committed by foreigners that disrupt the economic systems of various states. The State Migration Service of Ukraine sends requests about economic crimes committed by foreigners to the Interpol National Central Bureau.
Si hemos de hablar sobre uno de los motores económicos de la provincia de Jaén, uno de los principales (o sino el principal) sería el sector oleícola dado el aporte que realiza tanto en la economía como en el mercado laboral. Este hecho se corrobora al ser la provincia de Jaén uno de los principales productores de aceite a nivel mundial, llegando a obtener en la campaña 2013/2014 más del 40 por cien de la producción de aceite de España.
We present planning challenges, methods and preliminary results for a new model-based paradigm for earth observing systems in adaptive remote sensing. Our heuristically guided constraint optimization planner produces coordinated plans for multiple satellites, each with multiple instruments (payloads). The satellites are agile, meaning they can quickly maneuver to change viewing angles in response to rapidly changing phenomena. The planner operates in a closed-loop context, updating the plan as it receives regular sensor data and updated predictions. We describe the planner's search space and search procedure, and present preliminary experiment results. Contributions include initial identification of the planner's search space, constraints, heuristics, and performance metrics applied to a soil moisture monitoring scenario using spaceborne radars.
Abstract Background Youth-led movements like #FridaysforFuture and the school strikes for climate (henceforth referred to as the climate strikes) are leading calls for action on climate change worldwide. This paper reports on a thematic analysis of protest signs, and interviews with young climate strikers, at a climate strike in Manchester, UK, in 2019. Results This paper explores the ways in which dominant, adult-centred frameworks for conceptualizing young people’s environmental activism tend to obscure the complexities of the climate strike movement. In contrast, this study examines the complex political activism of climate strikers as a ‘subaltern group’, who take political action in a wider context of intersecting categories of oppression and marginalization – including youth as a category of marginalization – and in the historical context of environmental racism, the enduring legacies of colonialism, and global inequality during contemporary capitalism. Conclusions The article develops a theoretical model for future research, based on a model of two constraining frames that limit analysis of the climate strikes in particular and young people’s environmental activism in general. This paper contributes to a step change in methods for the study of this remarkable movement in a global context.
In order to study the phenomenon of regional economic development and urban expansion from the perspective of night-light remote sensing images, researchers use NOAA-provided night-light remote sensing image data (data from 1992 to 2013) along with ArcGIS software to process image information, obtain the basic pixel information data of specific areas of the image, and analyze these data from the space-time domain for presentation of the trend of regional economic development in China in recent years, and tries to explore the urbanization effect brought by the rapid development of China's economy. Through the analysis and study of the data, the results show that the urbanization development speed in China is still at its peak, and has great development potential and space. But at the same time, people also need to pay attention to the imbalance of regional development.
We develop a result on expected posteriors for Bayesians with heterogenous priors, dubbed information validates the prior (IVP). Under familiar ordering requirements, Anne expects a (Blackwell) more informative experiment to bring Bob's posterior mean closer to Anne's prior mean. We apply the result in two contexts of games of asymmetric information: voluntary testing or certification, and costly signaling or falsification. IVP can be used to determine how an agent's behavior responds to additional exogenous or endogenous information. We discuss economic implications.
Riccardo Di Clemente, Emanuele Strano, Michael Batty
Urbanization plays a crucial role in the economic development of every country. The mutual relationship between the urbanization of any country and its economic productive structure is far from being understood. We analyzed the historical evolution of product exports for all countries using the World Trade Web (WTW) with respect to patterns of urbanization from 1995-2010. Using the evolving framework of economic complexity, we reveal that a country's economic development in terms of its production and export of goods, is interwoven with the urbanization process during the early stages of its economic development and growth. Meanwhile in urbanized countries, the reciprocal relation between economic growth and urbanization fades away with respect to its later stages, becoming negligible for countries highly dependent on the export of resources where urbanization is not linked to any structural economic transformation.
La Gran Recesión ha dejado una estela de inestabilidad, desempleo, agudización de conflictos de todos los ordenes sin mostrar signos de recuperación y certidumbre económica, social y por supuesto política. En este contexto es preciso dar un giro y probar nuevas estrategias que rompan el círculo vicioso.
Economic growth, development, planning, Economics as a science