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Research on artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential effects on the workplace is increasing. How AI and the futures of work are framed in traditional media has been examined in prior studies, but current research has not gone far enough in examining how AI is framed on social media. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining how people frame the futures of work and intelligent machines when they post on social media.

We investigate public interpretations, assumptions and expectations, referring to framing expressed in social media conversations. We also coded the emotions and attitudes expressed in the text data. A corpus consisting of 998 unique Reddit post titles and their corresponding 16,611 comments was analyzed using computer-aided textual analysis comprising a BERTopic model and two BERT text classification models, one for emotion and the other for sentiment analysis, supported by human judgment.

Different interpretations, assumptions and expectations were found in the conversations. Three subframes were analyzed in detail under the overarching frame of the New World of Work: (1) general impacts of intelligent machines on society, (2) undertaking of tasks (augmentation and substitution) and (3) loss of jobs. The general attitude observed in conversations was slightly positive, and the most common emotion category was curiosity.

Findings from this research can uncover public needs and expectations regarding the future of work with intelligent machines. The findings may also help shape research directions about futures of work. Furthermore, firms, organizations or industries may employ framing methods to analyze customers’ or workers’ responses or even influence the responses. Another contribution of this work is the application of framing theory to interpreting how people conceptualize the future of work with intelligent machines.

This paper aims to present a literature review of remote monitoring systems for water infrastructure in the Global South.

Following initial scoping searches, further examination was made of key remote monitoring technologies for water infrastructure in the Global South. A standard literature search methodology was adopted to examine these monitoring technologies and their respective deployments. This hierarchical approach prioritised “peer-reviewed” articles, followed by “scholarly” publications, then “credible” information sources and, finally, “other” relevant materials. The first two search phases were conducted using academic search services (e.g. Scopus and Google Scholar). In the third and fourth phases, Web searches were carried out on various stakeholders, including manufacturers, governmental agencies and non-governmental organisations/charities associated with Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in the Global South.

This exercise expands the number of monitoring technologies considered in comparison to earlier review publications. Similarly, preceding reviews have largely focused upon monitoring applications in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper explores opportunities in other geographical regions and highlights India as a significant potential market for these tools.

This review predominantly focuses upon information/data currently available in the public domain.

Remote monitoring technologies enable the rapid detection of broken water pumps. Broken water infrastructure significantly impacts many vulnerable communities, often leading to the use of less protected water sources and increased exposure to water-related diseases. Further to these public health impacts, there are additional economic disadvantages for these user communities.

This literature review has sought to address some key technological omissions and to widen the geographical scope associated with previous investigations.

Despite the opportunities of digital twins (DTs) for smart buildings, limited research has been conducted regarding the facility management stage, and this is explained by the high complexity of accurately representing and modelling the physics behind the DTs process. This study thus organises and consolidates the fragmented literature on DTs implementation for smart buildings at the facility management stage by exploring the enablers, applications and challenges and examining the interrelationships amongst them.

A systematic literature review approach is adopted to analyse and synthesise the existing literature relating to the subject topic.

The study revealed six main categories of enablers of DTs for smart building at the facility management stage, namely perception technologies, network technologies, storage technologies, application technologies, knowledge-building and design processes. Three substantial categories of DTs application for smart buildings were revealed at the facility management stage: efficient operation and service monitoring, efficient building energy management and effective smart building maintenance. Subsequently, the top four major challenges were identified as being “lack of a systematic and comprehensive reference model”, “real-time data integration”, “the complexity and uncertainty nature of real-time data” and “real-time data visualisation”. An integrative framework is finally proposed by examining the interactive relationship amongst the enablers, the applications and the challenges.

The findings could guide facility managers/engineers to fairly understand the enablers, applications and challenges when DTs are being implemented to improve smart building performance and achieve user satisfaction at the facility management stage.

This study contributes to the knowledge body on DTs by extending the scope of the existing studies to identify the enablers and applications of DTs for smart buildings at the facility management stage and the specific challenges.

Problems such as information asymmetry and a lack of trust among construction practitioners damage the quality and progress of construction projects. The decentralization, transparency, traceability and temper-proof nature of blockchain technology (BCT) can provide solutions and facilitate multiparty cooperation. However, BCT acceptance in the construction industry is relatively low, and there are few pilot projects adopting BCT. Most relevant literature focuses on BCT acceptance at the industry and organizational levels, but the impact of non-managerial practitioners executing BCT or the traditional approach in day-to-day work tends to be disregarded. This study aims to establish a theoretical model of BCT acceptance, identify key influencing factors and paths of behavioral intention to adopt BCT and promote strategies to enhance BCT adoption.

A new BCT acceptance model for construction practitioners was proposed. A survey was performed with 203 construction practitioners in Shenzhen, China and post-survey interviews were conducted with four BCT experts for validation. Covariance-based structural equation modeling was used to examine the influence paths and moderating effect analysis was performed to check practitioners’ differential perceptions.

Performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and perceived behavioral control significantly and positively influence behavioral intention to accept BCT, while impacts from effort performance and risk are negative. Overcoming obstacles related to the effort required for BCT adoption and effective risk management will be essential to unlocking BCT’s transformative potential. Then, the moderating effects of respondents’ gender, degree and BCT knowledge as well as the project type involved were analyzed. Continued adoption of BCT in the construction industry has the potential to revolutionize project management, transparency and trust among stakeholders.

The findings of this research can help practitioners and government agencies understand crucial influencing factors and pathways of BCT acceptance. Targeted measures, such as increasing practitioners’ benefits and sense of BCT usefulness, conducting pilot projects and increasing publicity, were proposed for project leadership teams to enhance BCT adoption. This may lead to increased efficiency, reduced disputes and more streamlined and secure construction processes, ultimately enhancing the industry’s overall performance.

Few studies have explored BCT acceptance from the perspective of non-managerial construction practitioners. The BCT acceptance model proposed in this study is a novel adaptation of previous technology acceptance models, with new factors (risk and perceived behavioral control) and moderating variables (degree, BCT knowledge and project type) added for better understanding of non-managerial practitioners’ perceptions and differences.

This paper aims to concentrate on recent innovations in flexible wearable sensor technology tailored for monitoring vital signals within the contexts of wearable sensors and systems developed specifically for monitoring health and fitness metrics.

In recent decades, wearable sensors for monitoring vital signals in sports and health have advanced greatly. Vital signals include electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram, electromyography, inertial data, body motions, cardiac rate and bodily fluids like blood and sweating, making them a good choice for sensing devices.

This report reviewed reputable journal articles on wearable sensors for vital signal monitoring, focusing on multimode and integrated multi-dimensional capabilities like structure, accuracy and nature of the devices, which may offer a more versatile and comprehensive solution.

The paper provides essential information on the present obstacles and challenges in this domain and provide a glimpse into the future directions of wearable sensors for the detection of these crucial signals. Importantly, it is evident that the integration of modern fabricating techniques, stretchable electronic devices, the Internet of Things and the application of artificial intelligence algorithms has significantly improved the capacity to efficiently monitor and leverage these signals for human health monitoring, including disease prediction.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of a study carried out to identify and analyse which potential subject areas may have impact on developments in the field of building maintenance (BM). That is, it is intended to contribute to the integration of new approaches so that building maintenance management (BMM) becomes as automated, digital and intelligent or smartness as possible in the near future.

The research approach has resulted in a theory that is essentially based on a qualitative design. The route followed was a literature review, involving the collection, analysis and interpretation of carefully selected information, mostly from recently published records. The data assembled and the empirical experience itself made it possible to present a comprehensive viewpoint and some future outlooks.

Five thematic areas considered as potentially impactful for BM developments have been highlighted, analysed and generically labelled as thematic base words, which are monitoring, automation, digitalisation, intelligence and smart. It is believed that these may be aspects that will lay the groundwork for a much more advanced and integrated agenda, featured by a high-tech vision.

This is thought to be a different way of looking at the problem, as it addresses five current issues together. Trendy technological aspects are quite innovative and advantageous for BMM, providing opportunities not yet widely explored and boosting the paradigm shift.

Vision, audition, olfactory, tactile and taste are five important senses that human uses to interact with the real world. As facing more and more complex environments, a sensing system is essential for intelligent robots with various types of sensors. To mimic human-like abilities, sensors similar to human perception capabilities are indispensable. However, most research only concentrated on analyzing literature on single-modal sensors and their robotics application.

This study presents a systematic review of five bioinspired senses, especially considering a brief introduction of multimodal sensing applications and predicting current trends and future directions of this field, which may have continuous enlightenments.

This review shows that bioinspired sensors can enable robots to better understand the environment, and multiple sensor combinations can support the robot’s ability to behave intelligently.

The review starts with a brief survey of the biological sensing mechanisms of the five senses, which are followed by their bioinspired electronic counterparts. Their applications in the robots are then reviewed as another emphasis, covering the main application scopes of localization and navigation, objection identification, dexterous manipulation, compliant interaction and so on. Finally, the trends, difficulties and challenges of this research were discussed to help guide future research on intelligent robot sensors.

The purpose of this study is to explore a new assembly process planning and execution mode to realize rapid response, reduce the labor intensity of assembly workers and improve the assembly efficiency and quality.

Based on the related concepts of digital twin, this paper studies the product assembly planning in digital space, the process execution in physical space and the interaction between digital space and physical space. The assembly process planning is simulated and verified in the digital space to generate three-dimensional visual assembly process specification documents, the implementation of the assembly process specification documents in the physical space is monitored and feed back to revise the assembly process and improve the assembly quality.

Digital twin technology enhances the quality and efficiency of assembly process planning and execution system.

It provides a new perspective for assembly process planning and execution, the architecture, connections and data acquisition approaches of the digital twin-driven framework are proposed in this paper, which is of important theoretical values. What is more, a smart assembly workbench is developed, the specific image classification algorithms are presented in detail too, which is of some industrial application values.

This study aims to introduce and evaluate the COPULA framework, a construction project monitoring solution based on blockchain designed to address the inherent challenges of construction project monitoring and management. This research aims to enhance efficiency, transparency and trust within the dynamic and collaborative environment of the construction industry by leveraging the decentralized, secure and immutable nature of blockchain technology.

This paper employs a comprehensive approach encompassing the formulation of the COPULA model, the development of a digital solution using the ethereum blockchain and extensive testing to assess performance in terms of execution cost, time, integrity, immutability and security. A case analysis is conducted to demonstrate the practical application and benefits of blockchain technology in real-world construction project monitoring scenarios.

The findings reveal that the COPULA framework effectively addresses critical issues such as centralization, privacy and security vulnerabilities in construction project management. It facilitates seamless data exchange among stakeholders, ensuring real-time transparency and the creation of a tamper-proof communication channel. The framework demonstrates the potential to significantly enhance project efficiency and foster trust among all parties involved.

While the study provides promising insights into the application of blockchain technology in construction project monitoring, future research could explore the integration of COPULA with existing project management methodologies to broaden its applicability and impact. Further investigations into the solution’s scalability and adaptation to various construction project types and sizes are also suggested.

This research offers a comprehensive blockchain solution specifically tailored for the construction industry. Unlike prior studies focusing on theoretical aspects, this paper presents a practical, end-to-end solution encompassing model formulation, digital implementation, proof-of-concept testing and validation analysis. The COPULA framework marks a significant advancement in the digital transformation of construction project monitoring, providing a novel approach to overcoming longstanding industry challenges.

The lack of a proper register to store, match and display information on the adapted property has led to a waste of resources and prolonged delays in matching the disabled and elderly people with appropriate properties. This paper presents the development of a Housing Adaptations Register with user-matching functionalities for different mobility categories. The developed system accurately captures and documents adapted home information to facilitate the automated matching of disabled/aged applicants needing an adapted home with suitable property using banding, mobility and suitability index.

A theoretical review was conducted to identify parameters and develop adaptations register construct. A survey questionnaire approach to rate the 111 parameters in the register as either moderate, desirable or essential before system development and application. The system development relied on DSS modelling to support data-driven decision-making based on the decision table method to represent property information for implementing the decision process. The system is validated through a workshop, four brainstorming sessions and three focus group exercises.

Development of a choice-based system that enables the housing officers or the Housing Adaptations Register coordinators to know the level of adaptation to properties and match properties quickly with the applicants based on their mobility status. The merits of the automated system include the development of a register to capture in real-time adapted home information to facilitate the automated matching of disabled/aged applicants. A “choice-based” system that can map and suggest a property that can easily be adapted and upgraded from one mobility band to the other.

The development of a housing adaptation register helps social housing landlords to have a real-time register to match, map and upgrade properties for the most vulnerable people in our society. It saves time and money for the housing associations and the local authorities through stable tenancy for adapted homes. Potentially, it will promote the independence of aged and disabled people and can reduce their dependence on social and healthcare services.

This system provides the local authorities with objective and practical tools that may be used to assess, score, prioritise and select qualified people for appropriate accommodation based on their needs and mobility status. It will provide a record of properties adapted with their features and ensure that matching and eligibility decisions are consistent and uniform.