Corrigendum to ''A framework for risk assessment, management and evaluation: Economic tool for quantifying risks in supply chain'

The author of the above mentioned article would like to state that in the original version, which was published in the above mentioned volume, In section 5.2, step 2, the neutrosophic scale which was presented in Table 1 is used to construct the neutrosophic comparison matrices of criteria and sub-criteria. Table 1, the triangular neutrosophic scale consisted only of lower, median, and upper values of neutrosophic number, and we made the decision maker (DM) insert the degrees of truthiness, indeterminacy and falsity of these numbers according to his/her opinion and the nature of solved problem

Developing Commitment Towards Change in Bureaucracies: The Case-Study of the Egyptian Civil Service Sector

This thesis examines the management of change in bureaucracies, with a study focus on the Egyptian civil service sector. The main research aims are to identify what are the main problems of the Egyptian civil service sector, identify the main barriers against the current change programmes undertaken by the Government of Egypt (GOE) and suggest ways to develop civil servants’ commitment towards those changes. Interview data was triangulated with archival documents and non-participant observation and were drawn from a sample of 33 civil servants working in the Egyptian Ministry of State for Administrative Development (MSAD) which is the civil service entity acting as the change agent responsible for managing the government administrative reforms plan in the civil service sector. All study participants were actually working in one of the change projects/programmes and had a minimum of 12 months of service in the civil service. Interviews were digitally-recorded and transcribed in the form of MS-Word documents, and data transcripts were analysed manually using MS-Excel worksheets and main research themes were developed and statistics drawn using those Excel worksheets. The main research findings suggested that the main problems of the Egyptian civil service sector are (1) the absence of a Reward and Punishment system, (2) the absence of a firm system of governance and control and (3) the current negative civil service culture. The research findings suggested that developing civil servants’ commitment towards change may be achieved by employee involvement and participation in the change process and the careful selection of inspirational change agents. The findings also suggested that change agents play an important role in inspiring civil servants to support change and that middle management is another crucial factor in the change move as it should act as liaison between change agents and employees

Enhanced Computational Intelligence Algorithm for Coverage Optimization of 6G Non-Terrestrial Networks in 3D Space

The next generation 6G communication network is typically characterized by the full connectivity and coverage of Users Equipment (UEs). This leads to the need for moving beyond the traditional two-dimensional (2D) coverage service to the three-dimensional (3D) full-service one. The 6G 3D architecture leverages different types of non-terrestrial or aerial nodes that can act as mobile Base Stations (BSs) such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Low Altitude Platforms (LAPs), High-Altitude Platform Stations (HAPSs), or even Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Moreover, aided technologies have been added to the 6G architecture to dynamically increase its coverage efficiency such as the Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS). In this paper, an enhanced Computational Intelligence (CI) algorithm is introduced for optimizing the coverage of UAV-BSs with respect to their location from RIS in the 3D space of 6G architecture. The regarded problem is formulated as a constrained 3D coverage optimization problem. In order to increase the convergence of the proposed algorithm, it is hybridized with a crossover operator. For the validation of the proposed method, it is tested on different scenarios with large-scale coordinates and compared with many recent and hybrid CI algorithms, as Slime Mould Algorithm (SMA), Lévy Flight Distribution (LFD), hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization and Gravitational Search Algorithm (PSOGSA), the Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES), and hybrid Grey Wolf Optimizer and Cuckoo Search (GWOCS). The experiment and the statistical analysis show the significant efficiency of the proposed algorithm in achieving complete coverage with a lower number of UAV-BSs and without constraints violation. </p

An efficient parameter estimation algorithm for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a favorable renewable energy source to overcome environmental pollution and save electricity. However, the mathematical model of the PEMFC contains some unknown parameters which have to be accurately estimated to build an accurate PEMFC model; this problem is known as the parameter estimation of PEMFC and belongs to the optimization problem. Although this problem belongs to the optimization problem, not all optimization algorithms are suitable to solve it because it is a nonlinear and complex problem. Therefore, in this paper, a new optimization algorithm known as the artificial gorilla troops optimizer (GTO), which simulates the collective intelligence of gorilla troops in nature, is adapted for estimating this problem. However, the GTO is suffering from local optima and low convergence speed problems, so a modification based on replacing its exploitation operator with a new one, relating the exploration and exploitation according to the population diversity in the current iteration, has been performed to improve the exploitation operator in addition to the exploration one. This modified variant, named the modified GTO (MGTO), has been applied for estimating the unknown parameters of three PEMFC stacks, 250 W stack, BCS-500W stack, and SR-12 stack, used widely in the literature, based on minimizing the error between the measured and estimated data points as the objective function. The outcomes obtained by applying the GTO and MGTO on those PEMFC stacks have been extensively compared with those of eight well-known optimization algorithms using various performance analyses, best, average, worst, standard deviation (SD), CPU time, mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and mean absolute error (MAE), in addition to the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, to show which one is the best for solving this problem. The experimental findings show that MGTO is the best for all performance metrics, but CPU time is competitive among all algorithms

A hybrid neutrosophic group ANP-TOPSIS framework for supplier selection problems

One of the most significant competitive strategies for organizations is sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). The vital part in the administration of a sustainable supply chain is the sustainable supplier selection, which is a multi-criteria decision-making issue, including many conflicting criteria.</div

Towards a Reuse Strategic Decision Pattern Framework – from Theories to Practices

© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature This paper demonstrates our proposed Reuse Strategic Decision Pattern Framework (RSDPF) based on blending ANP and TOPSIS techniques, enabled by the OSM model with data analytics. The motivation, related work, theory, the use and deployment, and the service deployment of the framework have been discussed in details. In this paper, RSDPF framework is demonstrated by the data analysis and interpretations based on a financial service firm. The OSM model allows 3 step of processed to be performed in one go to perform statistical tests, identify linear relations, check consistency on dataset and calculate OLS regression. The aim is to identify the actual, expected and risk rates of profitability. Code and services can be reused to compute for analysis. Service integration of the RSDPF framework has been demonstrated. Results confirm that there is a high extent of reliability. In this paper, we have demonstrated the reuse and integration of the framework supported by the case study of the financial service firm with its data analysis and service to justify our research contributions – reuse and integration in statistical data mining, knowledge and heuristic discovery and finally domain transference