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The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated fuzzy approach to determine important universal usability problems (UUPs) by providing experts who behave like real users and to establish a work plan to correct the most important ones.

In this study, a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approach with three stages is proposed for the evaluation of universal usability. At the first stage, UUPs are identified by performing modified heuristic evaluation, and severity rating of each problem is determined by experts. At the second stage, critical problems are specified by applying the fuzzy Delphi considering these severity ratings. At the third stage, Fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory approach is applied to prioritize critical problems as sub and main criteria. An illustrative example related to emergency service is performed to apply the proposed approach.

Results showed that the elevator button design, the elevator emergency button design and the position of the floor signboard are the first three problems that should be primarily improved as sub-criteria. In terms of main criteria, equitable use, simple and intuitive use, and perceptible information are the first three main criteria that should be improve in emergency service.

This study is original in terms of methodology and providing a new perspective for building design evaluation. The results can help the designers to see the UUPs in buildings, to focus the most important UUPs and to establish improvement ranking. These advantages provide time and cost-effective design improvement actions.

For some specific multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems, especially in emergency situations, because of the feature of criteria and other fuzzy factors, it is more appropriate that values of different criteria are expressed in their correspondingly appropriate value types. The purpose of this paper is to build a multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) model dealing with heterogeneous information based on distance-based VIKOR to solve emergency supplier selection in practice appropriately and flexibly, where a compromise solution is more acceptable and suitable.

This paper extends the classical VIKOR to a generalized distance-based VIKOR to handle heterogeneous information containing crisp number, interval number, intuitionistic fuzzy number and hesitant fuzzy linguistic value, and develops an MCGDM model based on the distance-based VIKOR to handle the multi-criteria heterogeneous information in practice. This paper also introduces a parameter called non-fuzzy degree for each type of heterogeneous value to moderate the computation on aggregating heterogeneous hybrid distances.

The proposed distance-based model can handle the heterogeneous information appropriately and flexibly because the computational process is directly operated on the heterogeneous information based on generalized distance without a transformation process, which can improve the decision-making efficiency and reduce information loss. An example of emergency supplier selection is given to illustrate the proposed method.

This paper develops an MCGDM model based on the distance-based VIKOR to handle heterogeneous information appropriately and flexibly. In emergency supplier selection situations, the proposed decision-making model allows the decision-makers to express their judgments on criteria in their appropriate value types.

This paper investigates the overall system risk for a foodgrains supply chain capturing the interrelationship among the risk factors and the effect of risk mitigation strategies.

This paper first calculates the weight of risk factors using an integrated approach of failure mode, effects analysis and fuzzy VIKOR technique. Next, the weights are utilized as input for the weighted fuzzy Petri-net (WFPN) approach to calculate the system risk.

Two different WFPN models are developed based on the relationships among the risk factors, and both models demonstrate a higher risk value for the overall system.

The proposed methodology will help practitioners or managers understand the complexity involved in the system by capturing the interrelationship behaviour. This study also considers the concurrent effect of risk mitigation strategies for calculating the overall system risk, which helps to improve the system’s performance.

World shortages of certain raw materials leading to appreciable price increases is currently a regular feature of our daily lives— and is likely to be so, unfortunately, for the next few years. Meat has been increasing in price owing to various shortages in animal feeding stuffs. The fact that the populations of developing countries rightly demand that home produced meat is made available for their home consumption rather than for export is also adding to the problem as far as developed nations are concerned. The obtaining of sufficient protein for everyone's dietary needs is as basic and important as the need to have sufficient supplies of energy to meet world requirements. The amount of protein to be found on this earth is in excess of our projected needs, but there could well be severe shortages of protein foods for humans in an acceptable or usable state, especially if we continue to rely so heavily upon animal protein. There is, therefore, a real and urgent need for scientists to develop ways and means of transforming basic protein raw materials into acceptable products.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 34 women and men of the working sandwich generation (WSG) in Flanders, this chapter presents a taxonomy of nine coping strategies that the WSG uses to balance intergenerational care with a job: an acceptance strategy, a boundary management strategy, a help-seeking strategy, a planning strategy, a governance strategy, a self-care strategy, a time focus strategy, a values strategy and a super-sandwich strategy. Individuals of the WSG do not use just one strategy, but combine different strategies simultaneously or consecutively. Moreover, different strategies are also strongly linked to each other so that there is a certain degree of ‘overlap’.

Most people would agree that smoking, especially of cigarettes, is a closely ingrained habit in great masses of the British people, as indeed it is in most other parts of the world, but there can be few countries where so many people smoke at their work. The large number of prosecutions of food workers for smoking while handling open food and the presence of tobacco, cigarette ends, spent matches, etc., in foods; these are an index of how widespread is the habit of smoking at work.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of entrepreneurial features and the intention towards entrepreneurship (ITE) of generation Z students. The paper also explores if entrepreneurial education (EE) plays a role in the development of individual entrepreneurship orientation (IEO) and in increasing the ITE of the generation Z students.

The research consists of a survey of students in the fields of marketing and communication (n = 590) conducted in January 2018. The authors used SPSS software to test the reliability of scales that measure IEO, ITE, the need for achievement, structural behaviour, self-efficacy and the attitude towards job flexibility, and to run Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression and t test to test the hypotheses.

The findings show that generation Z students have similar ITE and EE to colleagues from other generations. EE has a significant impact on increasing both IEO and ITE. Nevertheless, generation Z students have a higher need for achievement, a lower self-efficacy and are more open to a flexible labour market.

This paper explores a topic which has received little attention: the interest and capacity of generation Z students to develop their own business. The paper also analyses whether the EE offered by universities can play a role in this regard.

In this paper, we present a brief study on various paradigms to tackle complexity or in other words manage uncertainty in the context of understanding science, society and nature. Fuzzy real numbers, fuzzy logic, possibility theory, probability theory, Dempster‐Shafer theory, artificial neural nets, neuro‐fuzzy, fractals and multifractals, etc. are some of the paradigms to help us to understand complex systems. We present a very detailed discussion on the mathematical theory of fuzzy dynamical system (FDS), which is the most fundamental theory from the point of view of evolution of any fuzzy system. We have made considerable extension of FDS in this paper, which has great practical value in studying some of the very complex systems in society and nature. The theories of fuzzy controllers, fuzzy pattern recognition and fuzzy computer vision are but some of the most prominent subclasses of FDS. We enunciate the concept of fuzzy differential inclusion (not equation) and fuzzy attractor. We attempt to present this theoretical framework to give an interpretation of cyclogenesis in atmospheric cybernetics as a case study. We also have presented a Dempster‐Shafer's evidence theoretic analysis and a classical probability theoretic analysis (from general system theoretic outlook) of carcinogenesis as other interesting case studies of bio‐cybernetics.

The purpose of this paper is to construct innovative exact and approximative sampling plans for acceptance sampling in statistical quality control. These sampling plans are determined for crisp and fuzzy formulation of quality limits, various lot sizes and common α- and β-levels.

The authors use generalized fuzzy hypothesis testing to determine sampling plans with fuzzified quality limits. This test method allows a consideration of the indifference zone related to expert opinion or user priorities. In addition to the exact sampling plans calculated with the hypergeometric operating characteristic function, the authors consider approximative sampling plans using a little known, but excellent operating characteristic function. Further, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis of calculated sampling plans is performed, in order to examine how the inspection effort depends on crisp and fuzzy formulation of quality limits, the lot size and specifications of the producer’s and consumer’s risks.

The results related the parametric sensitivity analysis of the calculated sampling plans and the conclusions regarding the approximation quality provide the user a comprehensive basis for a direct implementation of the sampling plans in practice.

The constructed sampling plans ensure the simultaneous control of producer’s and consumer’s risks with the smallest possible inspection effort on the one hand and a consideration of expert opinion or user priorities on the other hand.