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The purpose of this paper is to study large deviations for the solution processes of a stochastic equation incorporated with the effects of nonlocal condition.

A weak convergence approach is adopted to establish the Laplace principle, which is same as the large deviation principle in a Polish space. The sufficient condition for any family of solutions to satisfy the Laplace principle formulated by Budhiraja and Dupuis is used in this work.

Freidlin–Wentzell type large deviation principle holds good for the solution processes of the stochastic functional integral equation with nonlocal condition.

The asymptotic exponential decay rate of the solution processes of the considered equation towards its deterministic counterpart can be estimated using the established results.

This study examines the moderating role of information sharing on the effect of lead-time management on the performance of firms in the Zimbabwean motor industry.

Data were collected using Likert-based structured questionnaires from a sample of 105 employees in Zimbabwe. In addition, Pearson Correlation, Linear Regression and Moderation Regression analysis were employed to test the relationship between study variables.

The study found that fixed lead time, preprocessing lead time, processing lead time and postprocessing lead time significantly influence the performance of firms in the motor industry. The results also demonstrate that information sharing moderates the effect of lead-time management on firm performance in the motor industry.

Firms in the motor industry should establish long-term relationships with their suppliers and implement effective communication channels for timely and frequent information exchange regarding production schedules, inventory levels, quality standards and potential disruptions.

The current study aims to contribute to the scientific discourse on lead-time management, information sharing and performance in the motor industry. Furthermore, it extends knowledge on the performance of the motor industry in the African region.

The growth of China’s economy during the 1990s has both shaped and reflected changes in the span and function of the country’s shipping connections both within Asia and with the rest of the world. Although sea-land developments within China have been studied, less attention has been paid to the wider global implications stemming from the transformation of the country’s maritime geography during a decade of further market reforms and greater integration into the world economy. Consequently, there is a need to comprehend how China’s state-owned shipping industry has been reorganized during the 1990s to meet the new requirements, with special reference to the country’s liner shipping connections between and within Asia respectively. More purposely, these topics are addressed by examining changes in the organization, approach and set of connections of the state-owned China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (Cosco) and its post-1993 offshoot COSCO Container Lines Company Ltd (Coscon). This review provides a springboard for a detailed analysis of shifts in both extra- and intra-Asian shipping patterns between 1990 and 2000 and consideration of their strategic implications. Finally, short-sea shipping is defined and the phenomenon’s operational strengths and weaknesses discussed.

Air traffic controllers (ATCOs) play a fundamental role in the safe, orderly and efficient management of air traffic. In the interests of improving safety, it would be beneficial to know what the workload thresholds are that permit ATCOs to carry out their functions safely and efficiently. The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a simulation platform to be able to validate an affective-cognitive performance methodology based on neurophysiological factors applied to ATCOs, to define the said thresholds.

The process followed in setting up the simulation platform is explained, with particular emphasis on the design of the program of exercises. The tools designed to obtain additional information on the actions of ATCOs and how their workload will be evaluated are also explained.

To establish the desired methodology, a series of exercises has been designed to be simulated. This paper describes the project development framework and validates it, taking preliminary results as a reference. The validation of the framework justifies further study to extend the preliminary results.

This paper describes the first part of the project only, i.e. the definition of the problem and a proposed methodology to arrive at a workable solution. Further work will concentrate on carrying out a program of simulations and subsequent detailed analysis of the data obtained, based on the conclusions drawn from the preliminary results presented.

The methodology will be an important tool from the point of view of safety and the work carried out by ATCOs. This first phase is crucial as it provides a solid foundation for later stages.

This study examined the influence of social media use on graduateness and the employability of exit students in South Africa.

The study used quantitative and descriptive research designs to test the proposed hypotheses. An online survey was used to collect the data from a study sample. A sample of 411 respondents was received, with structural equation modelling (SEM) being used to assess the model fit.

The study found that the direct effect of social media use on graduateness skills is significant. Secondly, the direct effect of graduateness skills on perceived employability is also significant. The results also showed existence of support for the mediation of graduateness skills on the relationship between social media use and perceived employability.

The study provides empirical evidence to the proposed model and infers the potential role of social media in addressing issues related to graduateness and the employability of exit students.

In addressing the challenge of unemployment, the use of social media can potentially aid in matters of skills acquisition.

The results demonstrate how technology through the use of social media potentially fits within enhancing graduateness and employability skills.

This research explores the impact of the locally grown strategies for learning support, as a positive deviance (PD) study, during the COVID-19 pandemic in rural Uganda.

The researchers employed a randomized control trial (RCT) as an original design whereby 50 schools received a full package of SMS and WhatsApp peer groups of head teachers, 50 schools received SMS only and another 50 served as a control group. As an analytical method, this study adopted a difference-in-difference (DID) model to analyze the impact of the radio talk shows promoted through SMS followed by discussion among WhatsApp peer groups. The data collected in June 2021 and February 2022 were used due to the COVID-19-related data limitation of the baseline survey collected in 2019.

The authors found that the local radio talk shows as a PD intervention had a humble impact on preventing pupils’ dropout during the school closures for two years in Uganda. However, the authors did not obtain a significant result on the impact of the PD intervention on pedagogical support or learning outcomes at the school level. The authors also found that the pupils have significantly dropped their level of proficiencies in literacy and numeracy during the pandemic.

The findings could be of value for the leaders, educators and policymakers to understand the most recent update of learning situation in Uganda and the potential impact of locally grown strategies for learning which does not require external inputs.

The simulation of eddy currents in laminated iron cores by the finite element method (FEM) is of great interest in the design of electrical devices. Modeling each laminate by finite elements leads to extremely large nonlinear systems of equations impossible to solve with present computer resources reasonably. The purpose of this study is to show that the multiscale finite element method (MSFEM) overcomes this difficulty.

A new MSFEM approach for eddy currents of laminated nonlinear iron cores in three dimensions based on the magnetic vector potential is presented. How to construct the MSFEM approach in principal is shown. The MSFEM with the Biot–Savart field in the frequency domain, a higher-order approach, the time stepping method and with the harmonic balance method are introduced and studied.

Various simulations demonstrate the feasibility, efficiency and versatility of the new MSFEM.

The novel MSFEM solves true three-dimensional eddy current problems in laminated iron cores taking into account of the edge effect.

Social robotics is a rapidly growing application of artificial intelligence (AI) in society, encompassing an expanding range of applications. This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing integration of psychology into social robotics ethics by reviewing current theories and empirical findings related to human–robot interaction (HRI) and addressing critical points of contention within the ethics discourse.

The authors will explore the factors influencing the acceptance of social robots, explore the development of relationships between humans and robots and delve into three prominent controversies: deception, dehumanisation and violence.

The authors first propose design factors allowing for a positive interaction with the robot, and further discuss precise dimensions to evaluate when designing a social robot to ensure ethical design technology, building on the four ethical principles for trustworthy AI. The final section of this paper will outline and offer explicit recommendations for future research endeavours.

This paper provides originality and value to the field of social robotics ethics by integrating psychology into the ethical discourse and offering a comprehensive understanding of HRI. It introduces three ethical dimensions and provides recommendations for implementing them, contributing to the development of ethical design in social robots and trustworthy AI.

This chapter looks at the sex trade in Japanese society and the manner in which it has been accepted for decades, both socially and legally, as a ‘necessary evil’. This passive and disinterested tolerance of the industry's quasi-legal state, neither banning prostitution completely nor ensuring that it follows the transparent rules and regulations expected of other industries, means that it fails to satisfy either of the primary views on transactional sex: prohibition or legalisation. The result is that the women involved in the industry are subject to various forms of exploitation and abuse that the Japanese government, by failing to take active steps to reform the industry in either direction, becomes complicit to. Shaped by personal interviews with members of the industry and the NGOs that provide them with support, the chapter provides an examination of the industry's historical development, its portrayal in popular media and the prevailing social norms regarding the industry. It then assesses the political and legal responses to the industry and the glaring oversights that exist in their failure to provide adequate support. Finally, it considers, based upon the self-expressed interests of the women working in the industry, in what areas meaningful reform might occur.

Different from manufacturing resources allocation problems, the prices and amounts of limited public service resources could not be changed with the consumers’ requirements and social fairness is the most important objective for improving allocation efficiency. To measure social fairness reasonably, the purpose of this paper is fourfold: first, divide social fairness into longitudinal comparative fairness and crosswise comparative fairness, therefore providing their calculation formula and describing the comprehensive fair degree by using the interval numbers. Second, the comparison regulations of interval numbers are given and the corresponding features are also described. Third, an extension of VIKOR method is put forward for evaluating social fairness of different allocation alternatives with interval numbers. Finally, a numerical example illustrates the proposed method and clarifies the main results developed in the paper.

In this paper, the author depicts the social fair degree as an interval number, and thus proposes the comparison method between any two interval numbers. Based on the basis procedure of the VIKOR method, the paper proposes an extension of the fuzzy VIKOR method with the interval numbers to rank and select the compromise allocation alternatives. Finally, a numerical example illustrates the practicability of the proposed method.

The comparison of interval numbers is very important when the author evaluates the decision alternatives. Through analyzing the present comparison methods, the paper proposes the simple method of comparing the interval numbers, which can obtain the same results with the above two methods. The fuzzy VIKOR method, a popular multi-criteria decision-making method, focusses on ranking and selecting from a set of alternatives in a fuzzy environment. For the fuzzy value, the paper also proposes the extension of the VIKOR method to perform an evaluation and get the compromise alternatives.

According to the huge customers’ requirement, how to improve their social fair degree has become the focus in public service resources allocation, where the social fair degree may be a comprehensive concept which includes the fair degree compared with all the other allocation alternatives and the fair degree compared with the other small group under the same allocation alternative. In the paper, the author defines the above two types of fair degree and then depicts the comprehensive fair degree as their integration, which will be interval numbers.