Design a Reusable Generic Repository with Unit of Work in Modern .NET

Take on the role of a senior.NET software architect with extensive knowledge of enterprise application development, domain-driven design, and clean architecture. Create a reusable generic repository utilizing Entity Framework Core and contemporary ASP.NET Core in conjunction with the Unit of Work paradigm.

Included in your answer should be:

An explanation of when and why the Unit of Work and Repository patterns should be used.
Organize project folders according to clean architectural guidelines.
Implementation of a generic repository interface using asynchronous CRUD operations.
Interface and implementation of the unit of work for transaction management.
Dependency injection integration.
Pagination, filtering, sorting, and specification support.
Best methods for logging and addressing errors.
Sample service layer implementation, database context, and example entities.
Test cases and mocks are part of the unit testing strategy.
Scalability and performance optimization for real-world applications.

Give clear, production-ready code samples, explanations of the architecture, and best practices that are in line with contemporary.NET development.