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This paper aims to propose an optimized type-1 Sugeno fuzzy logic backstepping sliding mode controller (T1-SFL-BSMC) to control the altitude and rotational behaviour of a quadcopter. The proposed controller improves the performance of the system by overcoming the limitations of conventional trial-and-error techniques for BSMC gain design.

In this study, the type-1 Sugeno fuzzy logic controller (T1-SFLC) technique is proposed which dynamically modifies the BSMC gains. In addition, the parameters of T1-SFLC are further tuned by five different optimization techniques, namely, genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization (PSO), pattern search (PS), simulated annealing (SA) and adaptive neural network (ANN).

The effectiveness of these optimization techniques in tuning the T1-SFLCs for the gain scheduled BSMC is evaluated in terms of time response metrics; rising time, settling time and root mean square error (RMSE) for altitude and rotational behaviour. The results demonstrated that PSO-optimized T1-SFL-BSMC provides better responses in terms of time response metrices with reduced rise and settling times and minimized RMSE when compared to other optimized T1-SFL-BSMC.

This paper proposes a novel approach for controlling quadcopters by combining fuzzy logic with a BSMC. It is then improved by using many optimization strategies. A more dependable and effective approach to controller design is provided by the suggested method, which is essential for unmanned aerial vehicle applications.

The objective of this study is to address this central question: “What role do ICTs play in reducing poverty?”

First, in this study, we defined poverty in terms of its roots within health, economic development and education. Then, we conducted a systematic review of the information and communication technologies (ICTs) literature. From our analysis, we proposed a series of subsidiary questions and in-depth answers about the impact of ICTs on alleviating health-related, economic and educational causes of poverty.

This study observed positive effects of ICTs on healthcare, economic and educational dynamics and concluded that the development of more advanced infrastructure and greater access to such technology can amplify that impact.

This article explains how applications of ICT across sectors can substantially enhance quality of life and give people an opportunity to take control of their health-related, economic and educational futures. This study uniquely affords an integrative analysis of research and new thought about how to integrate key ICTs for more effective initiatives and investments to reduce poverty.

This study concentrates on assessing the research productivity in the domain of social media security in the past decades. The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric review on social media using various bibliometric indicators.

A total of 8,121 scientific publications were retrieved from Scopus database from period 1998 to 2021 using associated keyword search. This study also used VOSviewer^© tool to evaluate the network visualisation.

The result of this study revealed that there is a steady growth of annual publications except for the years 2015 and 2016. A total of 8,121 scientific publications and 80,454 total citations were found with 11.2 average citations per publication. The USA, China and India were top productive countries in terms of publishing research in the field; Chinese Academy of Sciences secured top position with 126 publications in highly productive organisation in the domain. The lecture notes in computer science from Springer Nature received a highly produced title with 553 publications and 4,453 total citations. For co-occurrence of author’s keywords, network visualisation analysis revealed that “Social Media”, “Social Network”, “Security”, “Privacy” and “Trust” found maximum occurrence in the domain of social media security.

This study provides comprehensive research status of social media security by performing a bibliometric analysis. The findings of this study will help relevant researchers to understand the research trend, pursue scientific collaborators and enhance research topic preferences.

The rareness of this study, detailed bibliometric analysis on the domain of social media security, is proven using numerous bibliometric indicators and application of VOSviewer in the domain.

The development of a new class of engineering materials is the current demand for aircraft and automobile companies. In this context metal, composite materials have a widespread application in different areas of manufacturing sectors.

In this paper, an attempt is made to develop the aluminium-based nano metal matrix composite reinforced with graphene nanoparticles (GNP) by using the stir casting method. Different weight percentage (0.4%, 0.8% and 1.2% by weight) of GNPs are used to fabricate metal matrix composites (MMCs). The developed nanocomposites were further validated by density calculation and optical microstructures to discuss the distribution of GNPs. The tensile test was conducted to determine the strength of the developed MMCs and also supported by fractographic analysis. In addition to it, the Rockwell hardness test and impact test (toughness) with fracture analysis were also conducted to strengthen the present work.

The results reveal the uniform distribution of GNPs into the matrix material. The yield strength and ultimate tensile strength obtained a maximum value of 155.67 MPa and 170.28 MPa, respectively. The hardness value (HRB) is significantly increased and 84 HRB was obtained for the sample with AA1100/0.4% GNP, while maximum hardness value (94 HRB) was obtained for the sample AA1100/1.2% GNP. The maximum value of toughness 14.3 Jules/cm² is recorded for base alloy AA1100 while increasing the reinforcement percentage, it decreases up to 9.7 Jules/cm² for AA1100/1.2% GNP.

Graphene nanoparticles are used to develop nanocomposites, which is one of the suitable alternatives for heavy engineering materials such as steels and cast irons. It has improved microstructural and mechanical properties which makes it preferable for many engineering and structural applications.

With increasing pressure from the government and private sectors to be more environmentally and socially responsible, sustainable supplier selection has gained enormous currency in recent times. Particularly, in the case of the construction industry, owing to a large amount of industrial wastage generated and extreme workplace conditions, it is even more important to devise strategies to mitigate the harmful consequences. The most crucial step in this regard is the selection of sustainable suppliers that acquire a pivotal position in the supply chain ecosystem. This study aims to identify indicators for three criteria such as economic, environmental and social, and prioritize them according to their level of significance for sustainable supplier selection in the Indian construction industry.

In this study, the best-worst method (BWM) is presented for sustainable supplier selection in Indian construction organizations. Total of 27 indicators was identified for the three criteria of the triple bottom line (TBL) approach namely economic, environmental and social. Using BWM, the most important criterion was found and subsequently, all the indicators under each criterion were ranked in order of importance.

The analysis revealed that the environmental criterion was the most important criteria in the sustainable supplier selection followed by the economic criteria. The indicators that were the most influential in the effective selection process were “Usage of recyclable raw materials for production”, “Adoption of clean and green technologies”, “Waste management” and “Periodical environmental audits” under the environmental criteria; “Efficiency”, “Cost” and “Flexibility and Scalability” from the economic criteria; and “Safety programs” and “Information disclosure” in the social criteria.

The study provides a reference framework for the selection of sustainable suppliers in construction organizations. The findings can also be used for the assessment of suppliers' performance in the supply chains.

The novelty of this work lies in its attempt to model the performance of suppliers in the Indian construction supply chains.

The study aims to identify organizational variables of quality 4.0 for an Indian manufacturing company in the case of digital transformation. Furthermore, the organization enhances its quality 4.0 performances to its success based on the degree of relevance of these variables, insight into these variables and sub-factors to prioritize them.

Initially, two rounds of the survey were conducted with 11 decision-makers from the company made to receive organizational variables scores and prioritize the factors and sub-factors. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based research methodology has been proposed to assign the criterion weights and prioritize the identified variables.

The results of this AHP model demonstrate that “Committed Leadership” is recognized as the top positioned variable and most significant organizational variable, followed by Collaboration and Quality culture, which are developed at the next level. These essential organizational variables with their sub-categories' priorities are identified as contributing attributes.

The findings facilitate quality 4.0 in the digitalization era, which take into contemplating the current state of the business. Furthermore, the understanding of variables provides insightful guidance to analyze, solve complex problems and assess the efficacy of quality 4.0 in digital transformation.

The novelty of this study is to pinpoint, and evaluate the responsible organizational variables and prioritize them that lead to high productivity and competitive advantage considering the AHP method.

This study aims to identify key supply chain challenges and opportunities of the case of Hong Kong toy manufacturing company during the COVID-19 outbreak and develop a comprehensive structural relationship to rank them.

In this study, a toy model company in Hong Kong is considered to discuss about what challenges and opportunities have the biggest impacts on non-necessary goods companies and how to deal with different impacts on entire supply chain flow disruption during COVID-19. A semi-structured interview with five decision-makers from the company was made to give key challenges and opportunities scores. The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) technique is used to establish the model and rank them afterward to overcome the challenges.

From the data analysis and results, “salary of employee” and “inconvenient transportation” have emerged as top and bottom key challenges respectively. The sequence of organized challenges in the list needs to mitigate one by one in this order to improve the supply chain performance. The “client's orders’ frequency, customer management” and “supplier/partner relationship management” are identified as the top and bottom respectively to develop the opportunities.

These key challenges and opportunities are identified as contributing attributes and provide the way to measure to improve production, profits and sustainable growth of the toy manufacturing company during a pandemic. Moreover, it helps to improve the distribution level and good planning with appropriate decision making to manage the supply chain performance considering humanitarian aspects during a pandemic outbreak.

The novelty of this study is to identify the key supply chain challenges and opportunities measured by the TOPSIS method to rank them and consider the case of a Hong Kong toy manufacturing company as a case-based approach to measuring its performance during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between patient satisfaction (PS) and the parameters in healthcare and supply chain management (HLSCM).

The structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method have been employed to identify correlation and possible configuration of causal factors that influence PS, including lack of resilience (LS), lack of visibility (LV), cost management (CM) and integration and interoperability (II).

The results from SEM confirmed that PS is highly correlated with lack of visibility, CM and II as critical parameters. Moreover, fsQCA findings state that the configuration of high levels of both resilience and lack of visibility, as well as high levels of II, are crucial for PS.

The researchers also identified the configuration of factors that lead to low PS. The study’s results could assist healthcare providers in improving their supply chain operations, resulting in more effective and efficient healthcare service delivery and ultimately improving PS.

The fsQCA method used in the study provides a more nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between these factors. The inclusion of supply chain management characteristics as parameters in the evaluation of PS is a novel aspect of this research. Previous studies largely focused on more traditional factors such as physical care, waiting times and hospital amenities. By considering supply chain management factors, this study provides insights into an under-explored area of PS research, which has important implications for healthcare providers looking to improve their operations and PS.

The purpose of this paper is to study the spillover effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on skilled–unskilled wage inequality in the Indian manufacturing industries.

The authors show theoretically with a model of spillover that if foreign firms (receiving FDI) have a negative spillover effect on domestic firms (not receiving FDI), then the level of capital and skilled workers in the domestic firms falls down. Consequently, the authors conduct an empirical analysis by using system GMM estimation technique on the firm-level data of the Indian organised manufacturing sector.

The authors show that wage inequality worsens when there is negative spillover effects like competition spillover or skill spillover effect of FDI in India.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to measure the various spillover effects of FDI on the wage inequality in the Indian manufacturing industries by using firm-level data.

Recent technological advancements, often linked to Industry 4.0, require organizations to be more agile and innovative. Blockchain technology (BT) holds immense potential in driving organizations to achieve efficiency and transparency in supply chains. However, there exist some insurmountable challenges associated with the adoption of BT in organizational supply chains (SC). This paper attempts to categorically identify and systematize the most influential challenges in the implementation of BT in SC.

This study resorts to an extensive literature review and consultations with experts in the field of supply chain management (SCM), information technology and academia to identify, categorize and prioritize the major challenges using VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) and Combined Compromise Solution method (CoCoSo).

The top three classes of challenges revealed in this study are privacy challenges (PC), infrastructure challenges (IC) and transparency challenges (TC). Maintaining a balance between data openness and secrecy and rectification of incorrect/erroneous input are the top two challenges in the PC category, integration of BT with sustainable practices and ensuring legitimacy are the top two challenges in the IC category, and proper and correct information sharing in organizations was the top most challenge in the TC category.

Future scholars and industry professionals will be guided by the importance of the challenges identified in this study to develop an economical and logical approach for integrating BT to increase the efficiency and outcome of supply chains across several industrial sectors.