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This chapter starts with the phenomenon of CRM systems being sometimes more considered as a burden than a support by salespeople. The main argument is that CRM tools do barely fit the needs of salespeople as their functions, most of all, are administrative, which leads to a resistance for using them.

The author shows how this kind of shortcomings are manifested in “real-life” operations and finds out that much of the problems seem to be due to the very architecture of extant CRM systems. Indeed, creative offerings and business development imply advanced cognitive processes for which there are no functions in traditional CRM tools.

Therefore, the core part of the chapter leads to a discussion on how genuine supportive CRM systems architecture should be designed. The sales process is made of three phases beyond the administration one, namely, a sense-making, a sense-giving, and a sense-acting phase. An adequate architectural design would take into consideration functions that support the whole process, which also includes informative links and a much more visual design to process information instantly.

Sustainability has become an integral part of the real estate industry, alongside advancing globalization and demographic development. Due to real estate's influence on greenhouse gas emissions throughout its life cycle, both the regulatory and legal requirements concerning the sustainability of real estate are growing and, as a result of social responsibility, the interest of tenants and investors in sustainable real estate. However, criteria for measuring the ecological sustainability of a real estate investment in the purchase process in order to reduce the risk of including “stranded assets” in the portfolio are missing. This paper aims to address the need to integrate the issue of carbon stranding into existing sustainability rating tools.

Existing tools are examined based on defined criteria to determine whether they are suitable for purchasing a property before suitable tools for purchase are compared. Strengths and weaknesses are identified, which are to be remedied with the scoring tool. Taxonomy regulation is integrated into the existing valuation basis as a legal regulation.

The result is a scoring tool that enables real estate companies to measure and evaluate the ecological sustainability performance of a property during the acquisition process, taking into account the three aspects of sustainability and considering them when determining an appropriate purchase price in line with market conditions. Moreover, the developed tool helps to minimize the risk of acquiring a stranding asset.

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework employed in this study does not incorporate governance considerations. While the analysis extensively evaluates the building's environmental and social aspects, it does not extend to examining the governance practices of the companies involved. Thus, the assessment is confined solely to the physical attributes of the property without accounting for broader corporate governance factors.

The developed scoring tool represents a valuable tool for the real estate industry, offering insights into sustainability performance during property acquisitions and providing a structured framework for decision-making. By addressing both certification and taxonomy regulation requirements, the tool contributes to the industry's evolution toward more sustainable and environmentally responsible real estate practices.

In response to the growing importance of sustainability in the real estate industry, this paper introduces a novel scoring tool for evaluating the sustainability of real estate investments during the acquisition process.

This paper aims to present a novel lightweight distribution grid operating robot system with focus on lightweight and multi-functionality, aiming for autonomous and live-line maintenance operations.

A ground-up redesign of the dual-arm robotic system with 12-DoF is applied for substantial weight reduction; a dual-mode operating control framework is proposed, with vision-guided autonomous operation embedded with real-time manual teleoperation controlling both manipulators simultaneously; a quick-swap tooling system is developed to conduct multi-functional operation tasks. A prototype robotic system is constructed and validated in a series of operational experiments in an emulated environment both indoors and outdoors.

The overall weight of the system is successfully brought down to under 150 kg, making it suitable for the majority of vehicle-mounted aerial work platforms, and it can be flexibly and quickly deployed in population dense areas with narrow streets. The system equips with two dexterous robotic manipulators and up to six interchangeable tools, and a vision system for AI-based autonomous operations. A quick-change tooling system ensures the robot to change tools on-the-go without human intervention.

The resulting dual-arm robotic live-line operation system robotic system could be compact and lightweight enough to be deployed on a wide range of available aerial working platforms with high mobility and efficiency. The robot could both conduct routine operation tasks fully autonomously without human direct operation and be manually operated when required. The quick-swap tooling system enables lightweight and durable interchangeability of multiple end-effector tools, enabling future expansion of operating capabilities across different tasks and operating scenarios.

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.

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) can create participatory cultures by removing barriers to access materials, encouraging student modes of expression, differentiating student interactions through digital environments and increasing learner autonomy. Participatory cultures require competencies or new media literacy (NML) skills to be successful in a digital world. However, professional development (PD) often lacks training on CALL and its implementation to develop such skills. The purpose of this study is to describe teachers use of digital tools for multilingual learners through a relevant theoretical perspective.

This design-based research study examines 30 in-service teachers in South Carolina, a destination state for Latinx immigrants, focusing data over three semesters of PD: interviews and instructional logs. The researchers address the question: How are teachers using digital tools to advance NML for multilingual learners (MLs)?

The authors analyzed current elementary teachers’ use of digital tools for language learning and NML purposes. Three themes are discussed: NMLs and digital literacy boundaries, digital tools for MLs and literacy teaching for MLs and NML skills.

Teacher PD often needs more specificity regarding the intersection of MLs and digital literacy. The authors contribute to the literature on needed elementary teaching practices for MLs, the integration of NML and how these practices may be addressed through PD.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the performances of vegetable based cutting fluids by comparing tool life, surface roughness and cutting force during end milling of AISI 304 stainless steel. In the experiments, three different vegetable based cutting fluids developed from sunflower and canola oils (SCF‐II with 8% extreme pressure (EP), CCF‐II without EP and CCF‐II with 8% EP) and a commercial type of semi‐synthetic cutting fluid were used. Cutting fluid was applied to the cutting zone via two nozzles.

Effects of different cutting speeds (100, 150 and 200 m/min) and different feed rates (0.2, 0.25 and 0.3 mm/rev) on tool life, surface roughness and cutting force in milling of AISI 304 stainless steel were investigated. Depth of cut and step over were kept constant as 0.3 mm and 10 mm at both conditions, respectively.

Results indicated that CCF‐II with 8% EP cutting fluid showed better performance than the others.

In this study, effect of extreme pressure additive on milling performance was investigated.

It is observed that many destinations are implementing sport tourism offerings to enhance their ability to attract visitors through satisfying their desires of new experiences. This has led to a highly competitive sport tourism market and as a result destinations engage in various marketing techniques and promotional tools to gain an advantage. For that reason this research was undertaken to acquire a greater understanding of the importance of promotional tools to successfully and efficiently market sport tourism experiences.

The construct of this study comprises of two stages. The aim of the first stage is to evaluate the specific tools used to promote sport tourism and sport tourism experiences in Barbados by examining the responses of various sporting and tourism bodies. The second stage of this research was conducted to present and analyze how marketing/promotional tools could contribute to better market sport tourism experiences.

The research found that many of the promotional tools implemented in Barbados during their marketing process correspond with those used internationally. However, problems of poor and insufficient sporting facilities as well as little collaboration between tourism and sporting entities, hamper the success of Barbados as a sport tourism destination. This further minimized Barbados’ ability to market favorable tourism experiences. This therefore shows that while promotional tools are essential in attracting tourists, other elements must also be taken into consideration to ensure sport tourists have positive experiences which would lead to a successful sport tourism destination.

Few studies in this area have been undertaken in the Caribbean. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the implementation of sport tourism offerings to attract visitors to Barbados.

Organizations, especially youth organizations, often use media and communication tools to engage participants and achieve their goals. While these tools have the potential to benefit organizations, it is unclear whether using media tools influences effectiveness and how their use compares to traditional engagement practices. In this chapter, I examine the impact of both media tools and participant inclusion on organizational efficacy, controlling for various organizational characteristics. I use originally collected survey data from paid staff youth nonprofit civic organizations in the Raleigh, North Carolina area. I find that using Twitter increases organizational efficacy, but the effect is ameliorated by the inclusion of organizational characteristics. I also find that media tools tend to be used by organizations in a one-directional manner, which may help explain their limited impact. Using media tools is not sufficient to increase efficacy since the way they are used also matters. Including youth in daily decision-making processes, however, increases organizational efficacy and the relationship is robust to including organizational characteristics.

The use of collaborative group work is an important teaching and learning strategy for online and blended courses. However, the challenges of collaborative group work, such as the lack of online technology skills, time conflicts, differences in team member participation, and logistics of online and blended teamwork, often leave students dissatisfied by the process. To maximize the benefits and minimize the challenges, students should be supported in the development of skills with the use of relevant (often emerging or Web 2.0) online technologies and the development of skills related to online and blended collaborative group work. The Phases and Scaffolds for Technology Use and Collaborative Group Work course design process was developed to address this need and is shared in this chapter along with an action research-based case study designed from an action research approach. The purpose of this study was to find out what students thought about the aforementioned course design process, as well as to find out which online tools were most beneficial for online collaborative group work. Based on the results of the survey, the Phases and Scaffolds for Technology Use and Collaborative Group Work course design process had a positive impact on student satisfaction, student learning, and student success and the most beneficial and valued online collaborative group work tools included Skype, Google Docs, and Adobe Connect.

The dynamic support database (DSD) clinical support tool structures the risk of admission rating for individuals with intellectual disabilities. This study aims to investigate inter-rater reliability between multi-disciplinary health care professionals within the North West of England.

A small-scale quantitative study investigated reliability between raters on the DSD clinical support tool. A data set of 60 rating tools for 30 individuals was used. Descriptive statistics and Kappa coefficient explored agreement.

The DSD clinical support tool was found to have strong inter-rater reliability between individual items and the differences between individual scores were spread suggesting variance found could not be attributed to specific questions. Strong inter-rater reliability was found in the overall ratings.

Results suggest the DSD clinical support tool provides stratification for risk of admission ratings independent of who completes it. Future studies could investigate inter-rater reliability between organisations, i.e. health and social care professionals, and use a larger data sample to ensure generalisability. Replication of the study within child and adolescent services using the children’s DSD clinical support tool is also recommended.

The DSD clinical support tool has been implemented within the child and adult intellectual disability services across the North West. As more teams across England consider its implementation, the study provides reassurance that coding agreement is high, allowing for stratification for risk of admission independent of the rater.