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Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The range of applications of FEMs in this area is wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore aims to give the reader an encyclopaedic view on the subject. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 2,025 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1992‐1995.

The purpose of this paper is to establish mechanisms for process improvement so that production efficiency and product quality can be expected, and create a sustainable development in terms of circular economy.

The authors obtain a critical value from statistical hypothesis testing, and thereby construct a process capability indices chart, which both lowers the chance of quality level misjudgment caused by sampling error and provides reference for the processes improvement in poor quality levels. The authors used the bottom bracket of bicycles as an example to demonstrate the model and methods proposed in this study.

This approach enables us to plot multiple quality characteristics, despite varying attributes and specifications, onto the same process capability analysis chart. And it therefore increases accuracy and precision to reduce rework and scrap rates (reduce), increase product availability, reduce maintenance frequency and increase reuse (reuse), increase the recycle rates of components (recycle) and lengthen service life, which will delay recovery time (recovery).

Parts manufacturers in the industry chain can upload their production data to the cloud platform. The quality control center of the bicycle manufacturer can utilized the production data analysis model to identify critical-to-quality characteristics. The platform also offers reference for improvement and adds the improvement achievements and experience to its knowledge management to provide the entire industry chain. Feedback is also given to the R&D department of the bicycle manufacturer as reference for more robust product designs, more reasonable tolerance designs, and selection criteria for better parts suppliers, thereby forming an intelligent manufacturing loop system.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

There is a growing interest in fuzzy time series (FTS) forecasting, and several improvements are presented in the last few decades. Among these improvements, the development of causal models (i.e., multiple factor FTS) has sparked a particular literature dealing with the causal inference and its integration in the FTS framework. However, causality among variables is usually introduced as a subjective assumption rather than empirical evidence. As a result of arbitrary causal modeling, the existing multiple factor FTS models are developed with implicit forecasting failure. Since post-sample control (unknown future, as in the business practice) is usually ignored, the spurious accuracy gain through increasing factors is not identified by scholars. This paper discloses the use of causality in the FTS method, and investigates the spurious causal inference problem in the literature with a justification approach. It invalidates the contribution of dozens of previously published papers while justifying its claim with illustrative examples and a comprehensive set of experiments with random data, as well as real business data from maritime transportation (Baltic Dry Index).

Cloud eases information processing, but it holds numerous risks, including hacking and confidentiality problems. It puts businesses at risk in terms of data security and compliance. This paper aims to maximize the covered human resource (HR) vulnerabilities and minimize the security costs in the enterprise cloud using a fuzzy-based method and firefly optimization algorithm.

Cloud computing provides a platform to improve the quality and availability of IT resources. It changes the way people communicate and conduct their businesses. However, some security concerns continue to derail the expansion of cloud-based systems into all parts of human life. Enterprise cloud security is a vital component in ensuring the long-term stability of cloud technology by instilling trust. In this paper, a fuzzy-based method and firefly optimization algorithm are suggested for optimizing HR vulnerabilities while mitigating security expenses in organizational cloud environments. MATLAB is employed as a simulation tool to assess the efficiency of the suggested recommendation algorithm. The suggested approach is based on the firefly algorithm (FA) since it is swift and reduces randomization throughout the lookup for an optimal solution, resulting in improved performance.

The fuzzy-based method and FA unveil better performance than existing met heuristic algorithms. Using a simulation, all the results are verified. The study findings showed that this method could simulate complex and dynamic security problems in cloud services.

The findings may be utilized to assist the cloud provider or tenant of the cloud infrastructure system in taking appropriate risk mitigation steps.

Using a fuzzy-based method and FA to maximize the covered HR vulnerabilities and minimize the security costs in the enterprise cloud is the main novelty of this paper.

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques are decision support systems that provide systematic approaches to solve hospitality and tourism (H&T) problems while minimizing the risk of failure. However, less is known about the application of MCDM techniques in H&T research. This study aims to systematically assess the use of MCDM techniques in H&T research to classify its current application and determine its application potential for H&T research.

This study used bibliometric analysis to examine all published MCDM studies focused on H&T industries, since 1997. In addition, topic modelling was used to discover key concepts. Finally, top cited studies in terms of total citations per year and total citations were qualitatively reviewed for more insights.

The findings revealed an ongoing interest in applying MCDM techniques in H&T research. Specifically, the extension of fuzzy theory in MCDM techniques is burgeoning among H&T researchers. However, a certain number of MCDM techniques seem to be ignored in this field with a repetitive application of MCDM techniques in particular areas.

The data for the current research was solely retrieved from Scopus and other databases were not included. Therefore, future research is called for to re-examine the study by considering data from various databases.

This study contributes to extant H&T literature by identifying the most prolific and influential countries, journals, publications and trends by applying MCDM techniques in H&T research, and elucidating the implications and characteristics of MCDM techniques in H&T research.

Integrated decision of pricing and inventory control for a deteriorating product is known as a good practice in revenue management discipline. The purpose of this paper is to formulate the problem of joint pricing and inventory decision in a manufacturer–retailer supply chain with deteriorating items and backlogging. Furthermore, the other purpose is to develop an efficient algorithm to obtain the equilibrium solution.

In this study, a manufacturer–retailer supply chain of a deteriorating product is considered. The retailer aims to maximize his profit, for which he jointly determines the retail price and replenishment cycle. In addition, the manufacturer should decide on the wholesale price to maximize her profit. Considering the problem as a manufacturer-Stackelberg game, the equilibrium solution is formulated and analyzed for both the manufacturer and the retailer. Moreover, two different procedures are developed to obtain the equilibrium solution. The first procedure is an exact procedure for the Taylor-approximated model and the second is a simulated annealing (SA)-embedded algorithm for the actual model.

It is found that Taylor-approximated procedure is more accurate than SA-embedded procedure. However, the latter is more time-efficient. Moreover, it is observed that the obtained solution is highly sensitive to demand parameters, while it is not the case for the cost parameters.

The paper models a real industrial problem, and its results could be used in analyzing any manufacturer–retailer supply chain with deteriorating items. Among others, the fruit and vegetable supply chains are more likely to have a similar setting, and this study’s results are applicable for such chains in food industry.

Most previous thermal-mechanical modeling of cold-formed steel (CFS) walls did not consider the failure of screwed connections under fire conditions because of the limited data of such connections at elevated temperatures.

In this study, 285 steady-state tests are conducted on CFS screwed connections with single-layer gypsum plasterboard (GPB) and Bolivian magnesium board (BMB) sheathing at ambient and elevated temperatures. The failure of these connections is described as the breaking of the loaded sheathing edge.

For the BMB sheathing screwed connections, hydrochloric acid gas is generated and released above 300°C, and the shear strength becomes much less than that of the GPB sheathing screwed connection above 370°C. Hence, BMB may not be suitable for use as the face-layer sheathing of CFS walls but is still recommended to replace GPB as the base-layer sheathing. The major influencing parameters on the shear strength of screwed connections are identified as the type of sheathing material and the loaded sheathing edge distance.

Based on the previous and present test results, a unified expression for the residual shear strength of screwed connections with GPB and BMB is proposed at ambient and elevated temperatures with acceptable accuracy. It can be used as the basic input parameter of the numerical simulation of the CFS structures under fire conditions.

This study aims to provide a systematic literature review (SLR) of extant research on talent management (TM) in hospitality and tourism (H&T). The objectives are first, to offer an empirical mapping analysis of TM research in H&T; second, to identify and discuss key research topics; and third, to recommend avenues for future research.

The authors conducted a SLR of TM literature in the context of H&T by analysing peer-reviewed papers published between January 2000 and October 2020. Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis process, three independent coders undertook a content analysis of 74 papers for the SLR.

The authors found that TM in H&T offers contextualised evidence consistent on five key research topics: TM practices; conceptualisation of talent and TM; TM antecedents and outcomes; key TM stakeholders; and talent education and graduate careers. The analysis indicated that most studies are qualitative, focussed on Europe and North America and that primarily examine hotels. The small number of TM studies in H&T along with the lack of strong theoretical groundings show that the field is at the early stages of the growing stage, yet the sharp increase demonstrates an exponential growth in interest.

This study highlights the importance of TM and indicates that businesses in the sector need to reconsider the definition of talent, their approaches to TM and the bundling of TM practices to improve their effectiveness. It also calls for partnerships among the industry’s key stakeholders and a revisiting of agendas for educators.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that offers a holistic examination of research on a wide range of TM topics within various H&T sectors over the past 20 years. It clarifies the conceptualisation of talent and TM in this field and provides insights, as well as context-specific evidence on the management of H&T talent. This study is the first to argue that the research stream is moving towards a growth stage and offers recommendations on advancing the field.

In the last few decades, there has been growing interest in forecasting with computer intelligence, and both fuzzy time series (FTS) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) have gained particular popularity, among others. Rather than the conventional methods (e.g., econometrics), FTS and ANN are usually thought to be immune to fundamental concepts such as stationarity, theoretical causality, post-sample control, among others. On the other hand, a number of studies significantly indicated that these fundamental controls are required in terms of the theory of forecasting, and even application of such essential procedures substantially improves the forecasting accuracy. The aim of this paper is to fill the existing gap on modeling and forecasting in the FTS and ANN methods and figure out the fundamental concepts in a comprehensive work through merits and common failures in the literature. In addition to these merits, this paper may also be a guideline for eliminating unethical empirical settings in the forecasting studies.