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Understanding the multifaceted images of tourism destinations is critical for effective destination marketing and management strategies. Traditional approaches, including conceptualization of destination images or analysis of their antecedents and consequences, are commonly used. This study aims to advocate the inclusion of visitors’ latent profiles based on cognitive images to enrich the evaluation and formulation of destination marketing and management strategies.

The analysis focuses on Serbia, an emerging destination, that attracts an increasing number of first-time, repeat and prospective visitors. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the potential dimensions (tangible and intangible cultural destination; infrastructural and accessible destination; active, nature and family destination; sensory and hospitable destination; and welcoming, value for money (VFM) and safe destination) of the cognitive destination image factors scale while subtypes (profiles) were obtained using latent profile analysis (LPA).

The cognitive image component encompasses the perceived attributes of a destination, whether derived from direct experience or acquired through other means. The study identified the following profiles: conventional destination; sensory and hospitable destination; welcoming, VFM and safe destination; secure and active family destination and accessible cultural destination, which are presented individually with their sociodemographic assets.

The main contribution of the paper is the application of a novel method (LPA) for profiling visitor segments based on cognitive destination image. From a theoretical perspective, this research contributes to the extant body of literature pertaining to the destination image, thereby facilitating the identification of discrete latent visitor segments and elucidating noteworthy differences among them concerning a cognitive image.

Key international and intergovernmental organizations assess the size of the Roma population in Serbia to be around 4–600.000, rendering Serbia among the five countries in Europe with the highest percentage of Roma population. Although Roma in Serbia have a long history of self-organization, cultural and media organizations, and are formally recognized as national minorities with a National Council of the Roma National Minority as a body with political decision-making influence, the Roma community in Serbia, as in most other European countries, is the most disadvantaged and underprivileged group in the country, often living in underdeveloped neighbourhoods with limited access to social services, especially education and health.

The educational attainment of the Roma population in Serbia, as in other countries in Europe, is far below the attainment of the general population. The education indicators are showing a developing trend, albeit slow. Roma integration policies evolved in Serbia from the early 2000s in the general policy framework of Equity of Education and Inclusive Education and a comprehensive education reform agenda, promoted and legally endorsed by the 2009 Law on the Foundations of the Education System. As the consequence of such an approach, the Roma integration policies intertwined and mutually reinforced with other reform policy areas. The most important post-2000 policies supporting the integration of Roma students into education are the introduction of pedagogical assistants in elementary schools and preschool institutions as a profession, paid from the budget, abolishing the system of school readiness assessment, introducing individual education plans and intensifying affirmative action and scholarships for enrolment in secondary and tertiary education.

This document presents BasES, which is a tool kit disseminated as an open educational resource. BasES is focused on the topic of buildings-as-energy services, promoting the knowledge integration to envisage buildings as components of future distributed renewable and interactive energy systems (DRIs). BasES will allow users of exploring and analysing DRIs' emergent properties at the local level, developing, and implementing the tool kit proposed. The specific objective concerns the use of the tool kit in the organisation of a technology support net (TSN) for buildings-as-a-service. TSN is composed of a multitude of actors, who often have different perspectives and scopes, but they are called to work collaboratively in order to establish work rules, requisite skills, work contents, standards and measures, culture and organisational patterns with regard to the emergent systems. Buildings-as-a-service is a completely new topic, and thus, an appropriate TSN is needed urgently. Our tool kit (i.e. Buildings-as-Energy-Services; BasES) will be a ground-breaking cognitive apparatus for involving stakeholders in knowledge transfer and integration processes. Thus, a new generation of product-service systems will be promoted. BasES is expected to configure a multi-stakeholder co-designed UK roadmap on socio-technical innovation in DRIs transition.

Following the recent rise in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools, fundamental questions about their wider impacts have started to reverberate around various disciplines. This study aims to track the unfolding landscape of general issues surrounding GenAI tools and to elucidate the specific opportunities and limitations of these tools as part of the technology-assisted enhancement of mechanical engineering education and professional practices.

As part of the investigation, the authors conduct and present a brief scientometric analysis of recently published studies to unravel the emerging trend on the subject matter. Furthermore, experimentation was done with selected GenAI tools (Bard, ChatGPT, DALL.E and 3DGPT) for mechanical engineering-related tasks.

The study identified several pedagogical and professional opportunities and guidelines for deploying GenAI tools in mechanical engineering. Besides, the study highlights some pitfalls of GenAI tools for analytical reasoning tasks (e.g., subtle errors in computation involving unit conversions) and sketching/image generation tasks (e.g., poor demonstration of symmetry).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study presents the first thorough assessment of the potential of GenAI from the lens of the mechanical engineering field. Combining scientometric analysis, experimentation and pedagogical insights, the study provides a unique focus on the implications of GenAI tools for material selection/discovery in product design, manufacturing troubleshooting, technical documentation and product positioning, among others.

Global crises have become increasingly recurrent events that jeopardize public-private partnerships (PPPs). In this context, the purpose of this paper is to expose the PPP-crisis research agenda by combining bibliometric and network analyses.

The PPP literature associated with global crises between the 2008 global financial crisis and 2022 was analyzed in three stages: (1) paper selection and screening for the inclusion/exclusion of articles relevant to this research, (2) semantic network development for examining thematic relationships among selected papers by considering the co-occurrence of keywords within the chosen studies and (3) calculation of network metrics for analysis.

The paper identified six research avenues for the PPP-crisis agenda: public interest, relational governance, risk management, user-pay PPPs, crisis management and financial performance. The PPP-crisis literature has spread significantly in the last five years driven by the case study approaches on a national or regional basis. Conversely, non-crisis periods generate room to strengthen user-pay PPPs and relational governance. The pandemic and post-pandemic times shared the priorities of the 2008 financial crisis but also strengthened the management of the risks and the structural drivers of the global crisis.

This study demonstrates that during global crisis periods, the public interest and financial performance gain relevance in a detriment of structural solutions to social legitimacy erosion of PPPs because of the urgency of giving tools to the public and private sectors to tackle the financial issues, which steer future issues for PPPs.

The interaction between rock mass structural planes and dynamic stress levels is important to determine the stability of rock mass structures in underground geotechnical engineering. In this work, the authors aim to focus on the degradation effects of fracture geometric parameters and unloading stress paths on rock mechanical properties.

A three-dimensional Particle Flow Code (PFC3D) was used for a systematic numerical simulation of the strength failure and cracking behavior of granite specimens containing prefabricated cracks under conventional triaxial compression and triaxial unilateral unloading. The authors demonstrated the unique mechanical response of prefabricated fractured rock under two conditions. The crack initiation, propagation, and coalescence process of pre-fissured specimens were analyzed in detail.

The authors show that the prefabricated cracks and unilateral unloading conditions not only deteriorate the mechanical strength but also have significant differences in failure modes. The degrading effect of cracks on model strength increases linearly with the decrease of the dip angle. Under the condition of true triaxial unilateral unloading, the deterioration effect of peak strength of rock is very significant, and unloading plays a role in promoting the instability failure of rock after peak, making the rock earlier instability failure. Associating with the particle vector diagram and crack coalescence process, the authors find that model failure mode under unilateral loading conditions is obviously distinct from that in triaxial loading. The peak strain in the unloading direction increases sharply, resulting in a new shear slip.

This study is expected to improve the understanding of the strength failure and cracking behavior of fractured rock under unilateral unloading.

This article explores the implications of virtual social spaces for conceptualizing community engagement in the practice of architecture and design by critically analyzing multidisciplinary approaches to conceptualizing community namely space, place, and context to envision social spaces of virtual community engagement by architects and designers.

This conceptual article utilized narrative literature review as the primary method for conducting a transdisciplinary theoretical integration. First, the authors defined the metaverse as all manner of human-technological interaction. Second, the authors discussed theories of place from architecture, social geography, and human ecology and employed neoecological theory to describe the interactional processes inherent in research and practice with virtual communities. Finally, the authors documented specific types of virtual engagement strategies in architectural research and practice.

Virtual environments provide varied opportunities for effective collaborations among architects, designers, and community members. The primary strategies identified by the literature review of virtual community engagement were collaborative, augmented reality, and situated digital experiences. In addition, researchers have found that the most effective community engagement bridges interactions in the physical space and digitally mediated interactions.

The authors advocate for increased research towards understanding how the expanded availability of more complex technological tools, such as future versions of artificial intelligence (AI) software, may further layer the landscape of community engagement in ways that may be unpredictable and currently less understood. Additional research is also needed to address participants' perspectives in virtual community engagement and explore how the building of communities in the meta-context is felt, lived, and understood by those who act in them.

The availability of new technological tools and digital platforms challenges diverse professionals to expand their community-engaged practice into the metaverse. Although not every community has broadband Internet or software access, many physical locations whether community centers, libraries, schools, or one’s own home may serve as safe spaces for novel virtual engagement experiences by individuals and groups. Digital engagement can increase opportunities for involvement from persons who are home-bound, lack transportation or child-care to attend in-person community events, or may desire the anonymity afforded by virtual engagement.

Virtual environments can provide varied opportunities for effective collaboration among architects, designers, and community members by overcoming physical or nonphysical barriers to in-person engagement. For example, recent case studies of civic and community organizations have successfully integrated physical and virtual community engagement during the global COVID-19 pandemic by overcoming physical or nonphysical barriers to in-person engagement. Community development theorists have referred to such contexts as a “post-place community” in which individuals find solidarity through digital global networks.

This article theorizes virtual community engagement in the metaverse from a transdisciplinary perspective and coins the innovative concept of meta-contexts to describe a global “post-place” community. Integrating theories of place from architecture, social geography, and human ecology guides an original review of effective strategies for meta-contextual digital community engagement by architects and designers.

Indian construction firms are falling behind in the use of digital technology in the workplace, and this study aims to give a framework and assess the role of enablers in the implementation and continuing digitalization of the Indian construction sector.

An exploratory qualitative research technique is used in this article, and multiple detailed interviews and surveys are done with professionals from the industry and academia. To conclude the significance and relevance of the different constructs and indicators, the partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach is used.

Barriers are essential enablers for effective implementation, while success factors are important drivers for the successful continuance of digitalization in the construction sector. However, stakeholders' perceived benefit has a substantial role in both implementation and continuance.

In this research paper, the scope of this investigation for a generalized exploratory study is restricted to construction firms within India. Further, a rigorous longitudinal study may also be performed to examine the subjectivity of the responses in order to ensure digital continuation. This study identifies limited manifest indicators. Additional indications, however, may be included based on the other company's resources, structure and geographic location.

The study's findings have two implications. In the beginning, it gives a direction to the construction sector by highlighting the framework in which implementation and continuance both should have to be executed, and this is the critical area for the successful continuance of digitalization in construction. Second, the research shows that the digitalization process is similar to the adoption of innovation, in which the deployment and persistent use of the new technology are important for facilitating the transformation.

In two respects, the study is distinctive. To begin, this is one of the limited efforts to comprehend digitalization from the Indian perspective. Second, the study reveals that the PLS-SEM approach can be effectively used in the developing subject of the construction digitalization concept.

A lack of suitably qualified Building Information Modelling (BIM) professionals is understood to be a major barrier towards higher uptakes of BIM in the Australian construction industry. In response, Australian universities have tried to integrate the teaching of BIM into construction-related curricula, but with limited success. The acknowledged impediment is the lingering mismatch between what universities offer and what industry actually needs. However, the exact nature of that mismatch has yet to be identified. This study addresses that knowledge gap. It assesses both the current status of BIM competencies among university graduates and explores how BIM education at Australian universities may be improved to deliver BIM work readiness, as required by the industry.

This paper employed a qualitative research approach, utilizing 17 semi-structured interviews with experts in the Australian BIM industry. The Person-Organization (PO) fit theory, which emphasizes the congruence between individual and organizational characteristics, was utilized as a theoretical framework to examine the compatibility between “demand” and “ability” perspectives. The resulting data were analysed using this theoretical framework to gain insights into the PO fit perspectives in relation to BIM industry practices.

Findings reveal that graduates are generally competent regarding the use of BIM software. However, employers require much more than software skills, and expect recruits to have the capability to implement BIM as a process according to information management standards. Specifically, graduates are significantly deficient in matters of BIM protocols, collaboration and coordination, information workflows as well as completion and handover procedures.

This study is the first of its kind that bridges the gap between industry expectations and university education, in the Australian context, moving beyond the common discourse in education literature, which is exclusively focused on assessing students’ perceptions about BIM.

The application of circular economy (CE) has received wide coverage in the built environment, including public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects, in recent times. However, current studies and practical implementation of CE are largely associated with construction demolition, waste and recycling management. Few studies exist on circular models and success factors of public infrastructures developed within the PPP contracts. Thus, the main objective of this article is to identify the models and key success factors associated with CE implementation in PPP infrastructure projects.

A systematic review of the literature was undertaken in this study using forty-two (42) peer-reviewed journal articles from Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and PubMed.

The results show that environmental factors, sustainable economic growth, effective stakeholder management, sufficient funding, utilization of low-carbon materials, effective supply chain and procurement strategies facilitate the implementation of CE in PPP infrastructure projects. Key CE business models are centered around the extension of project life cycle value, circular inputs and recycling and reuse of projects.

Although the study presents relevant findings and gaps for further investigations, it has a limited sample size of 42 papers, which is expected to increase as CE gain more prominence in PPP infrastructure management in future.

The findings are relevant for decision-making by PPP practitioners to attain the social, economic and environmental benefits of transitioning to circular infrastructure management.

This study contributes to articulating the key models and measures toward sustainable CE in public infrastructure development.