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This study clarifies the history and significance of cryptocurrencies. It explores the underlying decentralisation and trustlessness concepts that set these digital assets apart from conventional fiat currencies. It clarifies how blockchain technology functions as the core component of decentralised money. The mechanics of mining, its function in creating and validating Bitcoin transactions, and the emergence of substitute consensus mechanisms to solve environmental issues are all covered in this study. An in-depth analysis of blockchain technology covers its advantages, such as immutability and transparency, as well as its architecture and consensus processes. This study continues with a focus on the future by examining the development of decentralised finance (DeFi) and showcasing numerous DeFi applications, including yield farming, lending protocols, and decentralised exchanges (DEXs). As a result of the development of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, DeFi has become possible, ushering in a new era of financial independence and inclusivity. This study emphasises the significance of striking a balance between innovation and suitable regulatory measures as the globe embraces this revolution in order to enable the proper integration of DeFi into the global financial environment. The revolutionary potential of DeFi, particularly in increasing financial inclusion and empowerment for marginalised groups globally, is one of the major themes discussed. To negotiate legal frameworks while maintaining DeFi's decentralised nature, this study looks at the regulatory problems that come with this potential.

With the increasing turnover intention worldwide, psychological ownership is gaining traction. Considering the significance of the same for the development and growth of an organization, this paper explores the mechanism to promote psychological ownership and how generational differences contribute to the same.

A questionnaire was designed and circulated to 1450 employees covering Generation X, Y, and Z. A total of 378 usable responses were received and subjected to Process Macro Model 7 to test seven hypotheses. SPSS was used to test the reliability and validity of the dataset, and RStudio was used for the Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

The findings supported the moderated mediation model between psychological ownership (PO) and psychological availability (PA). Here, meaningfulness (MN) was the mediator, and age was the moderator. The paper suggests that Generation Z experiences significantly lower psychological ownership (PO) and psychological availability (PA) compared to their elder colleagues. The indirect effect of PA on PO through meaningfulness was significant for all generations, and the generational transition also introduced significant changes.

This is the first study to examine the generational differences in psychological ownership among employees. Accordingly, this research adds to the organizational development literature and suggests that human resource managers design customized interventions for promoting psychological availability. Also, the organization needs to maintain demographic diversity to facilitate learning and development.

This chapter delves into how smart city innovations positively affect workforce efficiency, residents’ quality of life (QoL), and the delivery of services, particularly within the dynamic context of smart cities: innovation, development, transformation, and prosperity. It discusses the role of technologies like cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, and intelligent transport systems in creating efficient, sustainable urban spaces that benefit the workforce and the broader community. The chapter highlights strategies for improving urban environments, ensuring workforce well-being, and fostering sustainable growth by examining the interplay between these technologies and urban living. The narrative emphasizes the necessity of ongoing innovation, policy support, and workforce adaptation, underscoring the importance of tailoring smart city initiatives to regional needs for maximal impact on employee performance, QoL, and service delivery. Additionally, it introduces a comprehensive framework designed to guide the development of next-generation smart cities. This framework integrates advanced technologies for optimized urban management and service provision, directly linking to enhanced employee performance through improved urban infrastructure and services. The strategic application of this framework aims to elevate economic prosperity and societal well-being, ensuring workforce efficiency is central to the urban development agenda. The enhanced employee performance, catalyzed by smart city innovations, is pivotal in driving economic vibrancy, social inclusivity, and environmental sustainability, shaping the future of urban development. This analysis will offer valuable insights for smart cities research and development in the Gulf Region, suggesting pathways for implementing these concepts to address the region’s urbanization and development challenges.

Purpose: In this study, monolith analysis methods, microservice identification, and decomposition methods proposed for the transition to microservice architectures that enable the development of appropriate solutions by adapting to the complex demands that will shape the technological infrastructure of the future are evaluated.

Need for the study: Decomposition from monolithic architectures to microservices has become a popular approach in organizations and companies with Industry 5.0. This transformation of Industry 5.0 enables businesses to gain a competitive advantage and can provide a quick solution to personalized problems such as personal service systems.

Methodology: The study, decomposition from monolith to microservice, initially includes monolith analysis, followed by microservice decomposition review. Various classification methods have been proposed for microservice identification and decomposition and are aligned with Industry 5.0 principles, focusing on artificial intelligence (AI)-based approaches, especially human-centered AI.

Findings: Four analysis methods (domain, static, dynamic, and version) are identified for monolith analysis, with static and dynamic being the most common. Version analysis is not typically used alone. In the decomposition phase, clustering-based methods are prevalent due to the uncertain dimensions of microservices. Rule-based and unsupervised methods are identified for decomposition, with AI algorithms like affinity propagation, Kmeans clustering, hierarchical clustering, Hungarian algorithm, genetic algorithm, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), and minimum spanning tree (MST) being employed.

Practical implications: Microservice architecture enables flexibility, scalability, and resilience compared to monolithic structures. Decomposing large-scale monolith projects into microservices is challenging, requiring selection of appropriate monolith analysis methods based on project details (e.g., domain analysis for detailed Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams) before proceeding with decomposition. This transformation improves deployment, maintenance, fault isolation, and scalability, while allowing for diverse service-specific databases and programming languages.

Purpose: In this chapter of this book, the role and contributions of blockchain in Industry 5.0 are examined. Especially, the advantages offered by blockchain in mass customization, hyper-personalization, human–robot collaboration and cognitive systems, which constitute the main theme of Industry 5.0, are mentioned.

Need for the study: With developing technology, revolutions are taking place in the industry. While these revolutions are occurring, various technologies serve as enablers. In this chapter, one of these technologies, blockchain, is examined.

Methodology: Industrial revolutions represent important technological developments for societies. In this chapter, Industry 5.0, one of these revolutions, is discussed. In the first section, the main themes of Industry 5.0 were examined. Afterward, the transition from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 was analyzed. Then, the opportunities offered by Industry 5.0 were reviewed. Subsequently, the contributions of blockchain to Industry 5.0 were examined. Finally, the role of blockchain in Industry 5.0 is summarized.

Findings: The main themes of Industry 5.0 enable customized processes and smart production approaches. Blockchain makes significant contributions to these processes with its security and traceability features. In addition, smart contracts can increase transparency, traceability and security among stakeholders in the production process with their distributed ledger structure and immutability features. In blockchain networks, each transaction is carried out and approved by consensus. This consensus, provided by smart contracts, also secures transactions by reducing administrative costs. With these contributions, blockchain meets the security and smart management requirements of Industry 5.0.

Data represents a critical resource that enables construction companies’ success; thus, its management is very important. The purpose of this study is to assess the benefits of construction data risks management (DRM) in the construction industry (CI).

This study adopted a quantitative method and collected data from various South African construction professionals with the aid of an e-questionnaire. These professionals involve electrical engineers, quantity surveyors, architects and mechanical, as well as civil engineers involved under a firm, or organisation within the province of Gauteng, South Africa. Standard deviation, mean item score, non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis H test and exploratory factor analysis were used to analyse the retrieved data.

The findings revealed that DRM enhances project and company data availability, promotes confidentiality and enhances integrity, which are the primary benefits of DRM that enable the success of project delivery.

The research was carried out only in the province of Gauteng due to COVID-19 travel limitations.

The construction companies will have their data permanently in their possession and no interruption will be seen due to data unavailability, which, in turn, will allow long-term and overall pleasant project outcomes.

This study seeks to address the benefits of DRM in the CI to give additional knowledge on risk management within the built environment to promote success in every project.

This paper aims to evaluate the dynamic performance of hybrid roller bearings under lubricant contamination.

Some steel rollers in traditional cylindrical thrust roller bearings were replaced with ceramic rollers to assemble hybrid roller bearings. Friction experiments were conducted under lubricant contamination using alumina as the contaminant, and simultaneous vibration acceleration signals from the bearings were collected to evaluate their tribological and dynamic performance.

Under lubricant contamination, hybrid roller bearings with a sufficient number of ceramic rollers exhibit greater wear resistance compared to traditional all-steel bearings. There is a noticeable suppression of energy in both tangential and normal frequency bands of the bearings, with more pronounced suppression observed in higher frequency bands.

This study provides valuable insights for the development of hybrid ceramic bearings.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-08-2024-0291/

This paper aims to study the combination of photochromic microcapsules, which use the ultraviolet (UV) rays for colour changing phenomena, and titanium oxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles (NPs), which block the UV rays by their photocatalytic activity in the sunlight on the cotton fabric.

The TiO₂ NPs mixed with photochromic printing paste are used for coating on cotton fabric and further curing is performed in a one-step process. The photochromic pigment printed fabric impregnated in a liquid solution is processed in a two-step process with two variables such as 1% TiO₂ and 2% TiO₂. The characterization of samples was done with a UV transmittance analyser, surface contact angle, antimicrobial test and fabric physical properties.

The UV protection of TiO₂-treated photochromic printed fabric was high and gives the ultraviolet protection factor rating of 2,000 which denotes almost maximum blocking of UV rays. The antibacterial activity of the one-step samples shows the highest 36 mm zone of inhibition (ZOI) against S. aureus (gram-positive) and 32 mm ZOI against E. coli (gram-negative) bacteria. The one-step sample shows the highest static water contact angle of 118.6° representing more hydrophobicity, whereas the untreated fabric is fully wetted (0.4°). In two-step processes, as the concentration of TiO₂ increased, the antibacterial activity, UV blocking and hydrophobicity became better.

This work achieves the multifunctional finishes by using photochromic microcapsules and NPs in a single process as a first attempt. The results inferred that one-step sample has achieved higher values in most of the tests conducted when compared to all other sample.

Against the background of the I50 paradigm, this paper queries in what ways blockchain and blockchain-based applications deployed in the smart city context facilitate the integration of the I50 paradigm in smart urban contexts.

A mixed methods approach is applied. First, by means of desk research and thematic literature review, a conceptual model integrating the I50 paradigm, smart city and blockchain-based solutions is built. Second, science mapping bibliometric analysis (SciMat) based on keywords’ co-occurrence is applied to a sample of 491 research articles to identify key domains of blockchain-based applications’ use in smart city. Third, a semi-systematic literature review complements insights gained through SciMat. Fourth, the findings are interpreted through the precepts of the conceptual model devised earlier.

The key blockchain-based applications in smart cities pertain to two domains, i.e. the foundational, service facilitation-oriented domain, including security (and safety), networks, computing, resource management and the service delivery-oriented domain, including mobility, energy and healthcare. Blockchain serves as the key building block for applications developed to deliver functions specific to each of the thus identified domains. A substantial layering of blockchain-based tools and applications is necessary to advance from the less to the more complex functional domains of the smart city.

At the conceptual level, the intricacies of the (making of the) I50 paradigm are discussed and a case for I50 – smart city – blockchain nexus is made. Easton’s input–output model as well as constructivism is referenced. At the empirical level, the key major domains of blockchain-based applications are discussed; those that bear the prospect of integrating the I50 paradigm in the smart city are highlighted. At the methodological level, a strategic move is made aimed at restoring the literature review’s role as subservient to the key line of exploration, to justify and ultimately support it, rather than to showcase the literature review as the ultimate purpose for itself.

This study aims to evaluate the development of composites made of epoxy (E) resin with different weight percentages of polypropylene (PP) and graphene oxide (Go) to form nanocomposite plates.

A hand lay-up process was used to develop 21 different composites, with varying concentrations of PP (5%–35%) and Go (5%–35%). A ternary composite of E matrix was produced by combining binary fillers PP and Go (5%–35%) in a 1:1 ratio to a (95%–5%) solution. With the help of adopting the melt condensation deal to extract Go, the modified Hummers method was used to make Go platelets.

Through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffraction investigations, the particulate’s size and structural characteristics were identified. Based on the FESEM analysis of the collapsed zones of the composites, a warp-and-weft-like structure is evident, which endorses the growth yield strength, flexural modulus and impact strength of the composites.

The developed nanocomposites have exceptional mechanical capabilities compared to plain E resin, with E resin exhibiting better tensile strength, modulus and flexural strength when combined with 10% PP and 10% Go. When compared to neat E resin, materials formed from composites have exceptional mechanical properties. When mixed with 10% PP and 10% Go, E resin in particular displays improved tensile strength (23 MPa), tensile modulus (4.15 GPa), flexural strength (75.6 MPa) and other attributes. Engineering implications include automobile side door panels, spacecraft applications, brake pads and flexible battery guards.