Modeling IoT enablers for humanitarian supply chains coordination

Disaster relief operations rely on reliable real-time information sharing during disasters to coordinate scarce resources and save lives. The Internet of Things (IoT) has recently been regarded as an important technology for enhancing information sharing in disaster response operations to achieve effective coordination, accurate situational awareness, and comprehensive visibility of operational resources. Despite its relevance, its adaptation and implementation have been fraught with complexity. This research aims to understand the IoT enablers of humanitarian supply chain coordination. Seven dimensional enablers have been formulated by reviewing the literature and validating with practitioners’ opinions. A structural model is then developed using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique that addresses the interdependencies of IoT enablers in humanitarian supply chain coordination. Finding provides insights into the interplay between management support, IT infrastructures, and third-party logistics service providers as key enablers towards adaptation and implementation of IoT in humanitarian supply chains. Results provide important implications and insight to decision-makers in international humanitarian organizations toward adaptation and implementation of IoT systems in humanitarian supply chains

Explaining the Drivers of Women's Entrepreneurial Opportunities with a Multi-Criteria Group Decision-Making Approach

The purpose of this study was to design and test a structural model of the relationship between spiritual attitudes and symptoms of eating disorders concerning the mediating role of body image concern and self-esteem in young women. Using cluster sampling method, 298 female undergraduate students of the Islamic Azad University of Khomeini Shahr were selected as the research sample and responded to the Spiritual Attitude Questionnaire, Body Image Concern Inventory, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Eating Attitude Test. To test the research model, the structural equation modeling method was used, using the maximum likelihood estimation method. Also, to evaluate the significance of the indirect effects of the model, the bootstrap method was used. Data analysis was performed with SPSS-24 and AMOS-24 software. The results showed that the research model has a good fit with the data and all direct and indirect effects of the proposed model are significant. In general, these results support the importance of the role of spiritual attitude in improving various aspects of mental health, especially the symptoms of eating disorders in women. Spiritual Attitude, Body Image Concern, Self–Esteem, Eating Disorders Symptoms, Young Women.      Introduction Eating disorders are disorders related to eating behaviors that affect the thoughts, attitudes, emotions and physiological functions of individuals. Eating disorders in DSM5 have been described as highly prevalent in young women (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). At the core of eating disorders is body image concern. Concerns about body image are associated with compensatory behaviors for beauty and fitness both in the general community and in people with eating disorders. Also, people with body image concerns experience low self-esteem over time due to negative selfevaluations (Özdin, Karabekiroğlu, Özbalcı, & Aker, 2021). On the other hand, spiritual attitude is a set of beliefs about the abilities and capacities of spiritual resources, the use of which increases adaptability and thus promotes mental health. These beliefs have a positive effect on giving meaning to different components of life and are effective factors in reducing life problems and increasing mental health (Litalien, Atari, & Obasi, 2021). Methodology The design of the present study was a correlational design. According to Kline's rule, 10 to 20 samples per model parameter (Kline, 2015) and also, taking into account the number of model parameters, the sample size was calculated to be 300 people. A total of 298 female students, with an average age of 21.32 and a standard deviation of 1.67 were selected from Khomeini Shahr Azad University students in the 2019-2020 academic year using cluster sampling method and answered the research questionnaires.   Research instruments included: Spiritual Attitude Questionnaire (Shahidi and Farajnia, 2012) with 43 items, Body Image Concern Inventory (Littleton, Axum, and Poory, 2005) to assess concernces about appearance deformity including 19 items, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) includes 10 items to measure self-esteem, Eating Attitudes Test (Garner, Olmsted, Bohr & Garfikel, 1982) to measure the symptoms of eating disorder with 26 questions and 3 scales of diet, overeating and mental occupation with food and oral inhibition. Descriptive features including mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis, and correlation between variables were performed using SPSS software version Structural equation modeling method was used to test the conceptual model and Maximum likelihood estimation method was used to estimate the model parameters. To evaluate the fit of the research model with experimental data, various types of fit indices and to evaluate the significance of the types of effects in the model, the bootstrap method was used. All structural equation modeling analyzes were performed using version 24 of AMOS software. Findings After examining the descriptive features and correlation between the variables, the conceptual model of the research was tested. This model includes four variables: spiritual attitude as exogenous variable, body image concern and selfesteem as mediating variables and latent variable of eating disorders symptoms as endogenous variable. This model was analyzed using the maximum likelihood estimation method and its fitting indices and estimated parameters were extracted. These results showed that the χ2/df index is less than 3 and is significant at the alpha level of 0.05. These results show that the sample variance-covariance matrix is not significantly different from the population variance-covariance matrix and the model fits the experimental data. Also, the size of RMSEA and SRMR indices is less than 0.05 and GFI, AGFI, NFI, TLI and CFI indices are more than 0.95. These results show that all the fit indices of the present model are in the desired range. According to these results, in general, the conceptual model of the research has a good fit with the experimental data obtained from the sample group. Examination of the model parameters also shows that all factor loads related to the latent variable of eating disorders symptoms, all path coefficients (direct effects) of the model and all indirect effects of the model are significant at the alpha level of 0.01. These results showed that spiritual attitude has a negative effect on body image concern and a positive effect on self-esteem. Also, body image concern has a negative effect on the eating disorders symptoms and a positive effect on self-esteem. Finally, self-esteem has a negative effect on the eating disorders symptoms. Result Franczyk (2014) believes that the existence of spiritual attitudes in the individual actually means a secure attachment to God. In this case, performing spiritual acts reminds the person that he is accepted by a powerful source, and this acceptance gives him self-esteem. This sense of self-worth leads to unconditional acceptance, including acceptance of physical and physical features. This type of attitude based on acceptance increases self-esteem and a sense of worth in the individual. Conversely, a person who does not have a spiritual attitude does not find meaning in life and does not accept what has been given to him by the Creator, this rejection includes the person's past, physical image and future events. However, such a person is always trying to make a difference. The most important behavioral response to body image concern is to try to lose weight. Tiggemann and Hage (2019) theory can be used to explain the mediating role of self-esteem and body image concern in the relationship between spiritual attitudes and symptoms of eating disorders. Tiggemann and Hage (2019) argue that having positive relationships with God, spiritual attitudes, religious affiliations, and religiosity-based behaviors does not directly reduce the symptoms of eating disorders, and the direct effects of these variables on each other will not be confirmed regardless of the mediating variables. However, Tigman and Hogg (2019) found that a positive relationship with God and the formation of deep spiritual attitudes, by increasing acceptance of oneself, others, and the world, creates spiritual motivation in the individual and his or her psychological well-being. And reduces fruitless efforts to change appearance based on increased mental health and mental well-being. In this way, people are more prepared to accept their genetic and God-given appearance and the symptoms of eating disorders will be reduced. In general, these findings support the effect of spiritual attitude on various dimensions of mental health in women. The most important limitation of the present study was the use of cross-sectional data and the limited community to students. These findings can be used to design educational and therapeutic interventions related to eating disorders in order to reduce the maladaptive manifestations of eating disorders symptoms in both normal women and among women with this disorder

Application of best-worst method in evaluation of medical tourism development strategy

Medical tourism industry is an international phenomenon, which most of medical tourists for some reasons such as high costs of treatment, long waiting queues, lack of insurance and lack of access to health care in the origin country, travel long distances to benefit from health care services of destination country. Given the competitive nature of this industry, most countries are designing practical and legal services and planning for their development. For this purpose, this study has been conducted to develop a strategic planning framework for development of medical tourism industry in Yazd province of Iran; because in recent years Yazd has recognized as the health pole by patients in developing countries. In sum, emphasizing on servicing, enhancing and developing specialized treatment centers, has attracted patients from center, south and east of the country as well as Middle East and Central Asia countries. The dominant approach in this study is developmental -practical and also the research method is descriptive, analytical and survey. In order to analyzing the data, the SWOT model and best-worst techniques have been used. In the following, after identifying strategic position of Yazd province in terms of medical tourism industry, the related strategies were formulated and practical results were presented

Extending the best-worst technique in the Miltenburg worksheet environment for the operational strategies formulation

Operational strategy is one of the essential tools for operations management in the current competitive environment. The operational strategy focuses on the activities of the operational levels in line with the competitive priorities of the organization. Hence, the present study tries to review and design the most appropriate operational strategies for increasing the efficiency of the Automotive manufacturing industry. However, given that the supply chain of this industry is dependent on the changing and unpredictable environment of the market and environment such as raw materials, suppliers' conditions, government policies and sanctions, and the price fluctuations caused by currency volatility, so the need for operational strategies is felt. Therefore, after determining the annual goals for each output, continuous flow production system was identified as the appropriate system for achieving the desired situation in the studied company. At last, adjustments were provided to improve the company's status in each of the production levers. Output Prioritization and development of the Miltenburg model with the Fuzzy Best-Worst Method took place for the first time According to the experts' opinion, which cost criterion identified as the most important output and the Quality criterion placed at the second level of important; and also Flexibility, performance and delivery criteria placed at the next level of important

Analysis of the Relationship between Supply Chain Quality Management Factors in Gas Industry with Fuzzy Interpretive Structural Modeling and Path Analysis

Competition of today's organizations in the supply chain has increased by growing the level of the competitiveness caused by globalization, and is included all chain members and external organizations. Intra-organizational perspectives about quality have some limitations; therefore, manufacturers should pay attention to inter-organizational approaches of quality such as supply chain quality management (SCQM). SCQM will enable the manufacturing companies to satisfy their customers' needs in a competitive market. In this study, after identifying the structure of supply chain management and quality management operation through comprehensive review of the literature, a comprehensive and conceptual definition about supply chain quality management (SCQM) and finally after studying its dimensions, a conceptual framework with 7 factors are presented. Relationship and sequencing of these factors determined by fuzzy interpretive structural modeling (ISM). In this regard, after the assessment, these factors were placed in five levels. Then the obtained structural model confirmed by using path analysis. The proposed model can help the gas industry in implementation of quality management in their supply chain to achieve competitive advantages and satisfy the customer needs bette

Strategic supplier selection for renewable energy supply chain under green capabilities (fuzzy BWM-WASPAS-COPRAS approach)

The supplier selection problem (SSP) is a significant issue in renewable supply chain management (RSCM). Selecting a strategic green supplier can not only discover the sustainable development of supply chains but also optimize the consumption rate of resources and decrease the negative environmental effects, which adopts to the green development context. As a multiple criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) problem, choosing a strategic green supplier is important to renewable supply chains. However, how to choose a strategic green supplier for supply chains is a great effort. Hence, In the present work, evaluating a set of strategic suppliers is primarily based on green capabilities by using an integrated fuzzy Best Worst Method (FBWM) with the other two techniques, namely COPRAS (Complex Proportional Assessment of Alternatives) and WASPAS (Weighted Aggregated Sum-Product Assessment). Initially, nine strategic supplier selection criteria have been identified through literature review and a real-world case study of Iran's renewable energy supply chain is deliberated to exhibit the proposed framework's applicability. The applied methodology and its analysis will provide insight to decision-makers of strategic supplier selection. It may aid decision-makers and the procurement department in differentiating the significant strategic green supplier selection criteria and assess the strategic green supplier in the local and global market supply chain. Finally, the strengths and limitation of the framework are discussed by using comparative analysis with other methods