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In smart cities striving for innovation, development, and prosperity, hydrogen offers a promising path for decarbonization. However, its effective integration into the evolving energy landscape requires understanding regional intricacies and identifying areas for improvement. This chapter examines hydrogen transport from production to utilization, evaluating technologies’ pros, cons, and process equations and using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) tool to assess these technologies based on multiple criteria. It also explores barriers and opportunities in hydrogen transport within the 21st-century energy transition, providing insights for overcoming challenges. Evaluation criteria for hydrogen transport technologies were ranked by relative importance, with energy efficiency topping the list, followed by energy density, infrastructure requirements, cost, range, and flexibility. Safety, technological maturity, scalability, and compatibility with existing infrastructure received lower weights. Hydrogen transport technologies were categorized into three performance levels: low, medium, and high. Hydrogen tube trailers ranked lowest, while chemical hydrides, hydrail, liquid organic hydrogen carriers, hydrogen pipelines, and hydrogen blending exhibited moderate performance. Compressed hydrogen gas, liquid hydrogen, ammonia carriers, and hydrogen fueling stations demonstrated the highest performance. The proposed framework is crucial for next-gen smart cities, cutting emissions, boosting growth, and speeding up development with a strong hydrogen infrastructure. This makes the region a sustainable tech leader, improving air quality and well-being. Aligned with Gulf Region goals, it is key for smart cities. Policymakers, industries, and researchers can use these insights to overcome barriers and seize hydrogen transport tech opportunities.

This study investigates the impact of staff training on university performance (UP), focusing particularly on the mediating role of ISO 9001 implementation in the higher education (HE) sector.

Employing a quantitative research design, data were collected via online surveys using purposive sampling techniques from academic and administrative staff affiliated with ISO 9001-certified universities. Subsequent analysis utilized SmartPLS-4 software.

The findings indicate that staff training significantly influences both ISO 9001 standard implementation and UP. Additionally, the mediating effect of ISO 9001 in the relationship between staff training and UP was found to be positive and significant.

Limitations of the study include its cross-sectional design, reliance on purposive sampling and exclusive focus on academic and administrative staff from seven ISO-certified universities in Pakistan, potentially limiting generalizability. Nonetheless, the study enriches the discourse on quality management in HE by emphasizing the role of staff training in fostering knowledge creation and enhancing staff competencies within organizational learning theory (OLT), and by integrating ISO 9001 into the dynamic capability theory (DCT) framework.

The study provides practical insights for policymakers, administrators and quality managers, emphasizing the importance of staff training, resource allocation for compliance and continuous improvement efforts to effectively implement ISO 9001 requirements and enhance overall UP.

This study contributes by introducing ISO 9001 adoption as a mediator between staff training and UP while integrating OLT and DCT theories within the university context.

Environmental dynamics affect all sectors, and retailing is no exception. Scholarships reveal that, in such turbulent times, entrepreneurial characteristics are essential for business. In academic research, entrepreneurial characteristics like entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and entrepreneurial competence (EC) are seldom evaluated for retailers. This study aims to decode the impact of small retailers’ EO and EC on firm business performance (BP). It also traces the mediation effect of EC in the relationship between EO and BP.

The study executed among 740 small retailers is a pioneering work to trace EO’s efficacy via EC on the retailer’s BP. The present research is a primal work in the Indian context. This work redesigns the EC scale to suit the retail context and evaluate its mediation role in the EO and BP relationship.

Examining the mediation model through structural equation modelling (SEM) adds empirical evidence to entrepreneurial value creation (EVC) theory and throws light on the indispensable qualities required for small business retailers. The outcomes of the SEM model portray that there is an association between the EO, EC and BP.

This study, though carried out methodically, it is constrained by the ensuing intricacies. The investigation was limited to the small- and medium-retailers engaged in retailing with a floor space from 500 to 5,000 square feet. All three constructs used in the study are measured using the self-reported perceptual scale, which infuses the subjectivity in the data. Exploring the EO and EC of widely dispersed retailers, examining the entrepreneurial character of large-format independent retailers and evaluating financial performance measures through retailers will add value to the study in future.

The study verified the central role of EC in the intangible resource-reward relationship. Among the five pillars of EVC theory, the role of intention and external finance are not considered in this work. The present work explored the EO and EC of existing retailers, and hence intention is excluded. The study concentrates on small retailers, and the role of external financing is not explored. Mishra and Zachary (2014b) opined that the EVC process should be studied in different context and listed out several prepositions. Considering the role of intention and external financing and studying several prepositions spelt out in the theory in varying contexts will throw more lights on the EVC process.

Student open feedback is an essential element to improve the teaching service. Comprehending the feedback collected daily may not be possible especially in a large classroom. There is needed an automated system that processes feedback and helps to recommend focused, precise points to the teacher stating the positives and negatives of a class. Also, the feedback texts are neither going to be grammatically correct nor going to consist only of English. Hence, an automated feedback processing system is essential that processes the mixed-language language text that provides crisp clear insights to the teachers, thus making effective student–teacher interaction.

This research is designed to analyse daily feedback from the students in grammarless English-Tamil mixed feedback and creates a dashboard that displays concise keywords regarding positive and negative aspects of the class. An ML-based system architecture is proposed for processing English-Tamil mixed grammarless feedback texts and validates the same with an experimental prototype and compares the results with other state-of-the-art models. This prototype classifies the text into different categories and provides the concise view with topic modelling techniques. This system is useful in progressive improvement of teaching learning process, subsequently leading to better teaching learning environment.

The proposed web-based architecture is validated with a prototype by comparing the results with other state-of-the-art models. The accuracy of the results is higher (>90%) in the proposed architecture than other models (<60%). The created teacher dashboard is highly recommendable and provides day-to-day recommendation for finetuning teaching and learning process. The web-based dashboard created for teachers enables them to interpret the student feedback with much ease due to the Machine learning algorithms used in implementing the web-based solution.

This system is designed to help the teachers to improve themselves in the teaching learning process with the feedback. The proposed system is a prototype that is initially tested with sample feedback texts obtained in sessions in postgraduate classrooms. The implementation of the prototype and analysis of teacher and student experience are presented as the immediate scope of this research work. This helps the teachers to get an overall view on the best teaching practices and what to improve. This work currently uses Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) uncased and in the increase of native language text the system may work with BERT multilingual.

This prototype will be implemented as a web-mobile based application. Students can submit their daily feedback through a mobile app, while teachers will access a dashboard that presents a concise overview generated by the proposed system architecture. The dashboard will also provide trend analysis, highlighting positive and negative aspects of the sessions. The system's effectiveness will be evaluated through a qualitative study, incorporating feedback from teachers and insights from students. This evaluation will help teachers gain a comprehensive understanding of the most effective teaching practices and areas needing improvement, thereby enhancing the teaching-learning process. The web-mobile application aims to Streamline the feedback process, making it easy for students to share their thoughts and for teachers to receive actionable insights. This study offers a clear and concise summary of student feedback and trend analysis from which the teachers can quickly identify patterns and make necessary adjustments to their teaching methods. Ultimately, this approach will foster a more responsive and effective educational environment, supporting continuous improvement and better student–teacher interactions. Further, the proposed system requires lesser technical knowledge and can be used by anyone.

A literature review has identified a critical need for a feedback processing system that functions at short intervals. Such a system is essential for providing teachers with concise, periodic summaries of students' open-ended feedback, which is vital for fostering continuous improvement in the teaching-learning process. The immediate processing of feedback, particularly when it contains English-mixed texts, is crucial for making timely adjustments that enhance both student performance and experience. By swiftly addressing concerns and reinforcing positive feedback, the system will improve student–teacher interactions, provide meaningful insights that contribute to progressive educational growth. This will help implement a feedback system that operates in these short intervals and allows for real-time monitoring and response to students' needs and experiences. Additionally, by highlighting areas of success, teachers can build on effective strategies and practices.

This research paper proposes a system architecture PSFAS: Progressive Student Feedback Analysis System with Multi Level Classification and Clustering that enables effective interaction between the student and the teacher with the findings from feedback and presenting an experimental prototype that can be incorporated into the regular teaching learning process, whether online or offline. It has been found from the literature review, that feedback processing is mostly done in the English language. This work proposes a system architecture that gives higher accuracy than other state-of-the art models for feedback texts having English-mix grammarless sentences.

This paper aims to examine the factors influencing the adoption of social media marketing by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan. By investigating the drivers and challenges/barriers affecting the adoption of social media marketing tools among SMEs, this study provides practical guidance to SMEs seeking to utilize social media platforms for marketing purposes in a developing context such as Pakistan.

Utilizing the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework as a theoretical framework, qualitative data were collected through semistructured interviews with representatives of SMEs in Pakistan, followed by thematic analysis of the data.

The research identifies several key factors influencing the adoption of social media marketing by Pakistani SMEs. These factors include doubts regarding the benefits of social media, alignment with regulatory requirements, challenges related to tracking social media performance, resistance from senior management (older employees), the positive influence of competitive pressure and the Covid-19 pandemic, political instability and increased government taxes on digital services. Stakeholders such as marketing professionals, academics, policymakers, government authorities and SME owners and managers can benefit from these findings.

This research contributes to the academic literature on the adoption of social media marketing by SMEs, especially within emerging economies. It enriches theoretical understanding of adoption processes and factors, filling gaps in existing knowledge and laying a foundation for future research in this domain. Using the TOE framework, the study reveals that when all factors are adequately considered, SMEs can transition from traditional marketing methods and embrace social media as a digital marketing strategy to enhance performance, profitability, and gain a competitive advantage over their rivals.

This study aims to present a great deal of interest in researching plant-based phytopharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals as a possible alternative to synthetic medication, both to avoid their side effects and for financial reasons.

Mankind has used medicinal plants since the beginning of civilization. Nature has been explored as a source of therapeutic chemicals for thousands of years, and many modern drugs have been discovered from natural sources. The primary medical care system of resource-poor areas in India has continued to rely on traditional medicine as the most accessible and reasonably priced form of treatment.

Tinospora cordifolia is a plant that is frequently used in Ayurvedic and traditional medicine throughout India. Although almost all of its parts are used in conventional medical systems, the leaves, stems and roots are the most significant ones used medicinally. All forms of existence can benefit from the versatility of T. cordifolia. It includes a wide variety of compounds that impact the body.

The goal of this review is to provide a concise summary of the knowledge about the pharmacological, phytochemistry, botanical, ethnopharmacology, toxicity study, marketed products and patents of the T. cordifolia plant.

Using an integrated theoretical model, this study aims to examine the moderating role of gamification in influencing intentions to use mobile payment applications in Bahrain.

The current examination happens to be the first approximation in the context of Bahrain wherein an extended TPB-based model integrating variables from TAM and UTAUT2 is used along with gamification and situational influence to examine the intentions to use m-payment applications.

The findings revealed that among the variates of the TPB, AT and PB significantly affect the intentions (IN) to use m-payment applications in Bahrain, but SN fails to affect intentions, similarly SI also fails to affect intentions thereby proving that the pandemic fails to drive the intention of the population under study toward using m-payment applications. However, when the application offers gamification (GM) features, SI significantly affects intentions through GM, thus experience along with situation drives intentions and this becomes the major theoretical contribution of the study.

This examination offers useful practical implications in the form of the findings revealing that GM affects intentions to use m-payment applications and that GM moderates the relationship between perceived risk (PR) and IN, as well as SI and IN, which can be used by the service providers to improve the user experience and achieve better acceptance of their application.

The novelty of the study lies in testing the integrated theoretical model in the context of a GCC nation, Bahrain.