The smart city presupposes the integration of different parts—Smart Economy, Smart Environment, Smart People, Smart Living, Smart Mobility, and Smart Governance. The integration assumes the certain relations between them. There are researches considering the impact of separate economic indicators on specific smart area or solutions. Nevertheless, the authors have not come across any studies considering the mutual impact of these areas. The goal of the research is to determine the direct effects of smart economy on other smart components and the indirect (mediation) impact of general indicators of national economy on smart domains. The model was estimated using the PLS-SEM technique tested in SmartPLS-3.3.7. software. The sample included statistical data on the indicators, received from Eurostat Database and Latvian Statistical Office. Data referred to Latvia for years 2009–2019. As a result, the hypotheses that Smart Economy has direct impact on smart people, smart living, smart mobility, smart environment, and smart society were supported. The mediation effect of general indicators of national economy was confirmed only for the smart society domain; other hypotheses were rejected. The obtained results can be practically applied by the authorities responsible for sustainable development of smart areas. The results of mediation effect can be especially interesting for countries that do not present a very high level of economic development but are developing smart, sustainable cities.

Bumblebees are key pollinators in agricultural landscapes. However, little is known about how gut microbial communities respond to anthropogenic changes. We used commercially produced colonies of buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) placed in three habitats. Whole guts (midgut, hindgut, and rectum) of B. terrestris specimens were dissected from the body and analyzed using 16S phylogenetic community analysis. We observed significantly different bacterial community composition between the agricultural landscapes (apple orchards and oilseed rape (Brassica napus) fields) and forest meadows, whereas differences in gut communities between the orchards and oilseed rape fields were nonsignificant. Bee-specific bacterial genera such as Lactobacillus, Snodgrassella, and Gilliamella dominated gut communities of B. terrestris specimens. In contrast, the guts of B. terrestris from forest meadows were dominated by fructose-associated Fructobacillus spp. Bacterial communities of workers were the most diverse. At the same time, those of males and young queens were less diverse, possibly reflecting greater exposure to the colony’s inner environment compared to the environment outside the colony, as well as bumblebee age. Our results suggest that habitat quality, exposure to environmental microbes, nectar quality and accessibility, and land use significantly affect gut bacterial composition in B. terrestris.

The concept of a smart city is widely implemented all over the world, and this fact creates both possibilities and new challenges for all participants and stakeholders of the process. This study examines the implementation of smart governance in the context of smart cities. The goal of the research is to distinguish between the effects and externalities of the smart governance domain, both positive and negative ones; the effects and externalities are elicited from the outcomes of smart governance implementation revealed from a review of scientific publications devoted to the results, barriers, and facilitators of smart governance functioning. The publications were selected according to a systematic review methodology, then the selected articles were analyzed and the factors that foster the processes of smart governance implementation (facilitators) or vice versa hamper the acquisition of results (barriers), as well as the outcomes of smart governance, were extracted. The extracted factors were attributed to six areas: Information, Efficiency, Citizen-Centricity, Transparency, Digital Divide, and Regulation. Further, the outcomes of smart governance implementation were distinguished as effects and externalities, which were both positive and negative.

This article explores the transformative role of intangible resources and products such as data, algorithms, and digital platforms in redefining economic region theory. The goal of the study is to provide a framework for dealing with intangible resources and products and refining the cost calculation techniques for them. The article includes the genesis of a theoretical approach to regional development and consideration of the implications of theoretical provisions in practice. Intangible inputs have significant peculiarities compared to tangible resources, and these peculiarities require a specific approach to the management of regions, especially considering their impact on agglomeration, cost structures, and market dynamics. The research is based on a comprehensive literature review and comparison, and application of theoretical provisions to practice. The development of the cost calculation framework is based on classical cost analysis considering the peculiarities of intangible resources. The findings demonstrate that integrating intangible resources into economic region theory broadens its applicability, offering a roadmap for regions to achieve growth and resilience in the digital economy while addressing evolving global challenges.

The activities of contemporary financial institutions require significant geographic expansion. Even the increased level of industry digitalisation does not minimise the importance of the physical assets of financial institutions. The environmental factors specific to each geographic region can significantly influence the efficiency of operations of financial institutions. The goal of the article is to determine the impact of the geographic location of physical assets via environmental risks affecting the other risks of fintech as a representative of financial institutions. The impact is determined by the employment of the PLS-SEM model implemented in SmartPLS 4.0 software. The model determines the impact of environmental risks on governance risks, operational risks, human resources and safety risks, ICT risks, compliance risks, and strategic risks. These groups of risks form the latent variables, which comprise the experts’ estimation of threats and vulnerabilities impacts and their likelihoods. After testing five hypotheses, two of them were supported—environmental risks impact human resources safety risks and operational risks.

The optimal body mass hypothesis posits that the body reserves of wintering birds are balanced between the risk of starvation and predation. In this study, we tested whether the body mass of wintering Great Tits (Parus major) was higher under conditions of less predictable food resources. We compared body mass, body mass index, the speed at take-off, and apparent survival of Great Tit adult males wintering in small urban areas either near feeders providing permanent access to food for months or near feeders providing irregular access to food. Body mass and body mass index were greater, while take-off speed and apparent survival were lower, in birds wintering near permanent feeders than birds wintering near irregular feeders. Thus, urban birds, with their predictable access to high energy food, did not follow the fattening strategy predicted by the optimal body mass hypothesis. This study shows that regular excess amounts of high-energy food may affect urban birds’ physiological and behavioral strategies in a non-adaptive way. We recommend irregular feeding of wintering birds and the placing of feeders in places that are safe against attacking predators.