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The purpose of this work is to optimize the monitoring of vibrations on dynamometric test rigs for railway brakes. This is a quite demanding application considering the continuous increase of performances of high-speed trains that involve higher testing specifications for brake pads and disks.

In this work, authors propose a mixed approach in which relatively simple finite element models are used to support the optimization of a diagnostic system that is used to monitor vibration levels and rotor-dynamical behavior of the machine. The model is calibrated with experimental data recorded on the same rig that must be identified and monitored. The whole process is optimized to not interfere with normal operations of the rig, using common inertial sensor and tools and are available as standard instrumentation for this kind of applications. So at the end all the calibration activities can be performed normally without interrupting the activities of the rig introducing additional costs due to system unavailability.

Proposed approach was able to identify in a very simple and fast way the vibrational behavior of the investigated rig, also giving precious information concerning the anisotropic behavior of supports and their damping. All these data are quite difficult to be found in technical literature because they are quite sensitive to assembly tolerances and to many other factors. Dynamometric test rigs are an important application widely diffused for both road and rail vehicles. Also proposed procedure can be easily extended and generalized to a wide value of machine with horizontal rotors.

Most of the studies in literature are referred to electrical motors or turbomachines operating with relatively slow transients and constant inertial properties. For investigated machines both these conditions are not verified, making the proposed application quite unusual and original with respect to current application. At the same time, there is a wide variety of special machines that are usually marginally covered by standard testing methodologies to which the proposed approach can be successfully extended.

This study aims to develop a talent selection model for learning organizations capable of connecting two groups, candidates in a talent hiring process and managers of the hiring company, in a reliable process, promoting organizational learning and increasing employee satisfaction.

This paper integrates egalitarian principles, an artificial intelligence mechanism founded on stable matching algorithms, and evaluating critical soft skills to enhance recruitment practices within learning organizations. The authors conduct a numerical real-world application in Python to showcase the model’s effectiveness. Five candidates were evaluated for five job positions. Moreover, 26 soft skills were analyzed by the five company leaders, relating them to the requirements of each job position and by all candidates, as a self-assessment process.

The model promoted egalitarian talent management because it motivates the candidates to choose the preferred position in a company, and the employers hire the best candidate. It is satisfactory for all participants in a company’s hiring process if the parties intend to be fair and egalitarian. The benefits of the process can be considered isolated (parties’ satisfaction) or a part of a company’s effort to stimulate an egalitarian culture in organizational values.

The information generated by the model is used to refine its selection process and improve its understanding of the job requirements and candidate profiles of the company. The model supports this idea, using the concepts of indifference, stability, egalitarianism and the soft skills required and identified to be more effective and learn about themselves.

This paper discusses an egalitarian point of view in the recruitment process. It is satisfactory for all participants in a company’s hiring process if the parties intend to be fair and egalitarian. The process’s benefits can be considered part of a company’s effort to stimulate an egalitarian culture in organizational values.

This paper brings an excellent future perspective and points to the company’s development of talent retention. The model simultaneously solves the evolution of talent management processes through new technologies and soft skills emerging in the postpandemic scenario.

This study aims to discuss the current context, scope and impacts of a metaverse in the hospitality and tourism industry. Although existing literature discussed the potentials of the metaverse in this context, the ways the metaverse work is still being defined and accessing a complete metaverse is still not yet possible. This existing knowledge will become increasingly sophisticated and complex as developments in the metaverse continue, eventually contributing to a knowledge gap in knowledge, and its implications in shaping how the future digital environment should take form.

This work is based on a critical reflection of the existing developments and applications of the metaverse. Drawing from authors’ experiences, and synthesis of existing works and narratives, this work discusses the applications of the metaverse, critical factors for considerations and applications of the metaverse and proposes the way forward for potential users.

The metaverse provides new opportunities for the hospitality and tourism industry but the impact of the technology may not be felt immediately. The real challenge lies in developing a responsible digital environment for users and suppliers. Although the aspects to be considered are many, a lack of preparedness is a great obstacle.

This paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of how the metaverse can be applied in the hospitality and tourism sector aiming to provide diverse stakeholders insights into the associated opportunities and pitfalls.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first attempts to critically reflect on the possibilities of the metaverse, and contributes to the discussion on the attributes of the metaverse for tourism and hospitality (e.g. SSIs, decentralization) and includes discussion on special needs users, sustainable usage and climate change, and presents several agendas for further actions.

This study investigated two key aspects: (1) how a hospital bundles limited resources for preventive care performance and (2) how to develop IS capabilities to enhance preventive care performance.

A case study method was adopted to examine how a hospital integrates its limited resources which leads to the need for resource bundles and an understanding of IS capabilities development to understand how they contribute to the delivery of preventive care in a Malaysian hospital.

This research proposes a comprehensive framework outlining resource-bundling and IS capabilities development to improve preventive care.

We acknowledge that the problem of transferring and generalizing results has been a common criticism of a single case study. However, our objective was to enhance the reader’s understanding by including compelling, detailed narratives demonstrating how our research results offer practical examples that can be generalized theoretically. The findings also apply to similar-sized public hospitals in Malaysia and other developing countries, facing challenges like resource constraints, HIS adoption levels, healthcare workforce shortages, cultural and linguistic diversity, bureaucratic hurdles, and specific patient demographics and health issues. Further, lessons from this context can be usefully applied to non-healthcare service sector domains.

This study provides a succinct strategy for enhancing preventive care in Malaysian public hospitals, focusing on system integration and alignment with hospital strategy, workforce diversity through recruitment and mentorship, and continuous training for health equity and inclusivity. This approach aims to improve resource efficiency, communication, cultural competence, and healthcare outcomes.

Efficiently using limited resources through HIS investment is essential to improve preventive care and reduce chronic diseases, which cause approximately nine million deaths annually in Southeast Asia, according to WHO. This issue has significantly impacted the socioeconomic development of developing countries.

This research refines resource orchestration theory with new mechanisms for resource mobilization, extends IS literature by identifying how strategic bundling forms specialized healthcare IS capabilities, enriches preventive care literature through actionable resource-bundling activities, and adds to HIS literature by advocating for an integrated, preventive care focus from the alignment of HIS design, people and institutional policies to address concerns raised by other research regarding the utilization of HIS in improving the quality of preventive care.

Recently, powerful instruments for biomedical engineering research studies, including disease modeling, drug designing and nano-drug delivering, have been extremely investigated by researchers. Particularly, investigation in various microfluidics techniques and novel biomedical approaches for microfluidic-based substrate have progressed in recent years, and therefore, various cell culture platforms have been manufactured for these types of approaches. These microinstruments, known as tissue chip platforms, mimic in vivo living tissue and exhibit more physiologically similar vitro models of human tissues. Using lab-on-a-chip technologies in vitro cell culturing quickly caused in optimized systems of tissues compared to static culture. These chipsets prepare cell culture media to mimic physiological reactions and behaviors.

The authors used the application of lab chip instruments as a versatile tool for point of health-care (PHC) applications, and the authors applied a current progress in various platforms toward biochip DNA sensors as an alternative to the general bio electrochemical sensors. Basically, optical sensing is related to the intercalation between glass surfaces containing biomolecules with fluorescence and, subsequently, its reflected light that arises from the characteristics of the chemical agents. Recently, various techniques using optical fiber have progressed significantly, and researchers apply highlighted remarks and future perspectives of these kinds of platforms for PHC applications.

The authors assembled several microfluidic chips through cell culture and immune-fluorescent, as well as using microscopy measurement and image analysis for RNA sequencing. By this work, several chip assemblies were fabricated, and the application of the fluidic routing mechanism enables us to provide chip-to-chip communication with a variety of tissue-on-a-chip. By lab-on-a-chip techniques, the authors exhibited that coating the cell membrane via poly-dopamine and collagen was the best cell membrane coating due to the monolayer growth and differentiation of the cell types during the differentiation period. The authors found the artificial membrane, through coating with Collagen-A, has improved the growth of mouse podocytes cells-5 compared with the fibronectin-coated membrane.

The authors could distinguish the differences across the patient cohort when they used a collagen-coated microfluidic chip. For instance, von Willebrand factor, a blood glycoprotein that promotes hemostasis, can be identified and measured through these type-coated microfluidic chips.

The current study examines a novel model that examines how the online and offline or general personality of the same person predicts social identification with the endorser in a message and their subsequent online behaviors (e.g. ad-skipping) on social media, both differentially and simultaneously.

Real-time ad-skipping behaviors were tracked and analyzed across three online experiments.

The results supported the model explicating the dual and simultaneous influence of offline and online personalities on ad-skipping behaviors. Specifically, in response to a skippable video ad, online and offline personalities respectively increase and decrease viewers’ identification with the endorser. Consequently, the higher or lower the identification, the lower or higher the rate of ad-skipping behaviors.

The current study will benefit from a larger set of real-world data (i.e. big data) to enhance the generalizability of the findings, supporting the model.

With the growing prevalence of the gap between online and offline self-identities driven by social media usage, this paper suggests that the ad message needs to address the dual influence of both online and offline identities on ad-skipping behaviors.

The current study tests a novel model that shows that the online and offline personalities of the same person concurrently influence one’s behavior on the Internet, rather than separately.

This study aims to investigate the influence of perceived luxuriousness on consumers’ revisit intentions via the mediating effects of positive and negative emotions based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model. In this context, “luxuriousness” specifically refers to the richness of furnishings, including the visual allure of aesthetic design and the surrounding cues.

A quantitative approach using a survey method is employed to analyse the collected 289 data from consumers of bubble tea. Partial least squares structural equation modelling is chosen as the main analytical approach to examine the research model.

The results showed that perceived luxuriousness has a significant positive influence on positive emotion and a significant negative influence on negative emotion. Furthermore, positive emotion positively affects revisit intentions, whereas negative emotion negatively affects revisit intentions. Positive emotion mediates the relationship between perceived luxuriousness and revisit intentions, but negative emotion does not.

In terms of theoretical contributions, this study contributes to the SOR model by exploring the influence of perceived luxuriousness on revisit intentions via the mediating effects of emotions in the bubble tea context, which has not been previously examined by past studies. In terms of managerial implications, this study provides insights into how to leverage the element of luxury to encourage consumers to revisit bubble tea stores.

This study elucidated the connections among the influence of Singaporean hawkers, local gastronomy involvement, and the three dimensions of authenticity (objective, constructive, and existential). Furthermore, it investigates how personal nostalgia affects the cultural identity of hawkers.

A self-administered questionnaire was created to assess hawker influence, gastronomy involvement, authenticity, personal nostalgia, and hawker cultural identity. Survey data was gathered from 401 Singapore residents aged 18 and older.

Results of the structural equation modeling revealed various significant aspects of hawker influence, including physical and social environments, uniqueness and cultural significance, and hygiene and food safety. Hawker influence and local gastronomy contributed to objective authenticity, which, in turn, affected constructive and existential authenticity, ultimately shaping personal nostalgia and hawker cultural identity.

The study offers guidance for stakeholders in sustaining hawker culture, emphasizing authenticity’s role and the importance of nostalgia in identity formation. By aligning with the progressive nature of Singapore, these implications aim to ensure the continued thriving of this invaluable legacy for generations to come.

The study affirms relationships between hawker influence, local gastronomy involvement, and authenticity constructs. It emphasizes the hawker’s role and gastronomy involvement in influencing individuals’ perceived authenticity and accentuates the potential for authenticity in strengthening national branding.

This chapter describes experiences of inclusion from the perspective of young adults with Down syndrome, participating in an intensive education to work (EtW) training programme. The programme, designed by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), was conducted within a private university in Australia working in partnership with the NGO.

Drawing from a broader formative evaluation of the programme, the case study investigated how inclusion was described and understood by the student participants and individuals involved in facilitating or supporting the programme. Data collection involved conducting a focus group interview with student participants and face-to-face interviews with their teachers, a student volunteer and two university lecturers who interacted with students in the programme. The findings have been used to improve the processes of the programme currently undergoing its third iteration.

Findings suggest the need to consider at least two levels of provision in the development of equitable education for individuals participating in this programme. These include considering their voices at the level of programme design, and secondly, deliberately facilitating disability confidence programs for university students and staff.

The study notes that embedding education to employment training programs for individuals with intellectual disabilities within university settings provide them with opportunities to experience and access higher education; however, more investigations are needed to ascertain what equitable higher education in practice means for them.

Scholarly works on sex work and sex workers are mostly confined to discourses on human trafficking and the incidence of HIV/STIs among sex workers. Although crucial, this restricted focus has neglected the reality that sex workers are a diverse community, and while their challenges may appear to be linked at first glance, they differ greatly. While extensive research has been conducted on sex workers working in more open settings like brothels, hotels, and streets, there is a scarcity of research on sex workers working in more private spaces, such as, for instance, their own homes. Within the hierarchy of sex workers, home-based sex workers (HBSWs) among the indoor sex workers dominate commercial sex transactions. However, they are often overlooked due to their covert nature and invisible landscape. This chapter addresses the knowledge gap by examining the work lives and conditions of home-based female sex workers (FHBSWs) in Punjab. The study analyzes the complex lives of sex workers who use their home as both a family unit and a workplace. A detailed analysis of the risks and vulnerabilities they face in their daily lives and their coping strategies is also examined in this chapter. The study points out that although working from home may have positive outcomes for sex workers, the integration of sex work into the home environment exposes them to several challenges. Hence, the study emphasizes the need for tailoring interventions for sex workers who operate in different physical environments so that their unique needs and challenges are well addressed.