Griffith Research Online

Additions of biochar to soil can result in net increases or net decreases in soil organic matter (SOM) stocks. A small change in SOM mineralization could significantly affect SOM stocks and, hence, atmospheric CO2 and other ecosystem services conferred by SOM. Thus, understanding the effects of biochar additions on SOM and – particularly, soil carbon – is critical. Here we review the trends and mechanisms for increases and decreases in soil organic carbon mineralization, as well as the methods and approaches used to study these phenomena and future directions for this area of research.

A key challenge for advancing industrial engineering in the era of Industry 4.0 is to understand the changes to workflow that will be needed to support new ways of operating. Embedding digital technology into a production system creates opportunities not only for increasing efficiency, but also for supporting new production paradigms. However, as innovative workflows are created to maximise the new ways of working that digital technology—with the added complexities of digital convergence—brings, it is still critical to recognise the importance of the role of effective people management within the process. This chapter considers changing workflows in the context of rethinking manufacturing within the Royal Australian Air Force for more flexibility, distributed production, and adaptable outcomes. The influence of the individual on practice is acknowledged and integrated into systems development.

This chapter discusses the skills required to navigate uncertainty produced by ‘digital convergence’ manifest as Industry 4.0. Key skills for future working, such as identified by the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2023, include analytical thinking, creative thinking, systems thinking, curiosity, lifelong learning, and adaptability. These skills are increasingly needed because digital convergence, where the synergy of two or more digital technologies significantly changes practice, combines technical aspects of computing with design and innovation requiring a different emphasis in skills development. The chapter discusses how new skills for digital convergence could help organisations better navigate the ambiguities of integrating Industry 4.0.

This chapter documents a conversation between three colleagues, from three very different disciplines, reflecting on the ongoing presence and pressure of ecological unsustainability in academia and what it means at a practical level for our research. With nearly sixty years of academic service between us, we have been writing the literature exploring and resisting the neoliberal agenda for at least two decades. As an act of defiance against neoliberalism, our chapter will be structured differently from usual academic convention. Instead, three long-term colleagues and friends got together informally and shared experiences at a virtual bar where we could relax and discuss things that might normally go unsaid.

Conventional manufacturing systems are shifting toward smart manufacturing where a wide range of devices are connected to the Internet, thanks to advances in Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The high connectivity of such devices introduces security risks because malicious nodes may attempt to compromise or tamper with data generated by the devices. This in turn highlights the security and data trust challenges in smart manufacturing. In this chapter, we discuss blockchain as a solution to address the outlined challenges. We study the state-of-the-art solutions proposed in the literature to enhance security and establish trust in manufacturing. Next, we introduce a blockchain-based framework to secure smart manufacturing by analyzing the data logs produced by the devices. Ultimately, we envision a blockchain-based framework to enforce trustworthiness in Digital Twins (DTs) that mirror every facet of the industrial processes to help achieve predictive maintenance.