Ensuring soil strength, as well as preliminary construction cost and duration prediction, is a very crucial and preliminary aspect of any construction project. Similarly, building strong structures is very important in geotechnical engineering to ensure the bearing capability of structures against external forces. Hence, in this first-of-its-kind state-of-the-art review, the capability of various artificial intelligence (AI)-based models toward accurate prediction and estimation of preliminary construction cost, duration, and shear strength is explored. Initially, background regarding the revolutionary AI technology along with its different models suited for geotechnical and construction engineering is presented. Various existing works in the literature on the usage of AI-based models for the abovementioned applications of construction and maintenance are presented along with their advantages, limitations, and future work. Through analysis, various crucial input parameters with great impact on the estimation of preliminary construction cost, duration, and soil shear strength are enumerated and presented. Lastly, various challenges in using AI-based models for accurate predictions in these applications, as well as factors contributing to the cost-overrun issues, are presented. This study can, thus, greatly assist civil engineers in efficiently using the capabilities of AI for solving complex and risk-sensitive tasks, and it can also be used in Internet of things (IoT) environments for automated applications such as smart structural health-monitoring systems.

The Internet of things (IoT) is a heterogeneous network of different types of wireless networks such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs), ZigBee, Wi-Fi, mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), and RFID. To make IoT a reality for smart environment, more attractive to end users, and economically successful, it must be compatible with WSNs and MANETs. In light of this, the present paper discusses a novel quantitative trust model for an IoT-MANET. The proposed trust model combines both direct and indirect trust opinion in order to calculate the final trust value for a node. A Beta probabilistic distribution is used to combine different trust evidences and direct trust has been calculated. The theory of ARMA/GARCH has been used to combine the recommendation trust evidences and predict the resultant trust value of each node in multi-step ahead. Further, a routing protocol has been designed to ensure the secure and reliable end-to-end delivery of packets by only considering trustworthy nodes in the path. Simulation results show that our proposed trust model outperforms similar existing trust models.

In developed nations, the advent of distributed ledger technology is emerging as a new instrument for improving the traditional system in developing nations. Indeed, adopting blockchain technology is a necessary condition for the coming future of organizations. The distributed ledger technology provides better transparency and visibility. This study investigated the features that may influence the behavioral intention of energy experts to implement the distributed ledger technology for the energy management of developing countries. The proposed model is based on the Technology Acceptance Model construct and the diffusion of the innovation construct. Based on a survey of 178 experts working in the energy sector, the proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling. The findings showed that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude, and cost saving had a positive and significant impact during the blockchain technology adoption. However, innovativeness showed a positive effect on the perceived ease of use whereas an insignificant impact on the perceived usefulness. The present study offers a holistic model for the implementation of innovative technologies. For the developers, it suggest rising disruptive technology solutions.