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The purpose of this paper is to develop an information system which is based on the Internet of things (IoT) and used to support the communication and coordination in a cooperative robot team.

The architecture of the IoT applications for decision-making activities in a complex system is elaborated, the focus lies on the effective implementation of system interactions at the device-level. A case study is provided to verify system performances.

The IoT concept has been introduced in an information system of a football robot team to support the coordination among team players. Various sensors are used to collect data from IoT, and data are processed for the controls of robotic players to achieve the better performance at the system level. The field test has shown the feasibility and effectiveness.

To investigate how IoT can be utilized in an information system for making complex decisions effectively, the authors use the decision-support system for a football robot team to illustrate the approaches in developing data acquisition infrastructure, processing and utilizing real-time data for the communication and coordination of robot players in a dynamic competing environment. While the presented work has shown the feasibility of an IoT-based information system, more work are needed to integrate advanced sensors within the IoT and develop more intelligent algorithms to replace manually remote control for the operations of robot players.

The proposed system is specifically for a football robot team; however, the associated approaches are applicable to any decentralized system for developing an information system to support IoT-based communication and coordination within the system in the real-time mode.

The exploration of IoT applications is still at its early stage, existing relevant work is mostly limited to the development of system architecture, sensor networks, and communication protocols. In this paper, the methods on how to use massive real-time data for decision-making of a decentralized team have been investigated, and the proposed system has its theoretical significance to developing other decentralized wireless sensor networks and decision-making systems.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unprecedented mental health repercussions in the lives of every individual including university students. Therefore, study on students’ psychological state and its associated factors during the pandemic are of importance. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned issue.

An online survey was done on a total of 207 university students of Pakistan to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics, concerns or fears amidst COVID-19 and mental distress. Validated tools; Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)-Depression were used to assess stress, anxiety and depression, respectively.

Around 14% of the university students were experiencing severe stress and anxiety, while 8.2% had severe depression. The authors found that stress among university students was related to psychiatric illness or symptoms (OR = 5.1: 1.1, 22.9) and unpredictability due to the pandemic (OR = 3.7: 1.2, 11.2). The significant determinants of anxiety were psychiatric illness/symptoms (OR = 6.6: 3.4, 12.9), implementation of public health measures (OR = 3.7: 1.1, 11.6), employed mothers (OR = 2.4: 1.1, 5.0) and lack of support from university administration (OR = 2.2: 1.0, 5.0). While the factors associated with depression included psychiatric illness or symptoms (OR = 8.4: 3.3, 21.5), unpredictability due to pandemic (OR = 6.8: 2.2, 20.7), impaired social support system (OR = 3.7: 1.3, 10.4) and studying without a scholarship (OR = 2.1: 1.0, 4.4).

These findings call for an urgent need to develop appropriate interventions and educational programs that could address the psychological needs of students.

The study directs the role of university and faculty in dealing the mental health needs of the student in COVID-19 pandemic time.

Educational programs are important that could address the psychological needs of students in COVID-19 pandemic.

University students reported mental distress during COVID-19 pandemic which shows that younger people are at risk of COVID-19 repercussions. Moreover, several stressors (i.e. impaired social support system and lack of support from universities) were revealed that could be mitigated by implementing appropriate strategies.

While the world-wide adoption of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) aims to eliminate differences in national accounting standards between countries, the socio-political institutions surrounding financial reporting practices remain localised. This paper aims to penetrate and reveal the manner in which local national context, stakeholder intentions and financial reporting practices can moderate the compliance with IFRS in a developing country.

An interview-based qualitative research framework was used to analyse the experience and attitudes of accountants, auditors and financial reporting regulators during a passage of accounting reform initiatives.

This paper provides a critical analysis of the financial reporting practices of a developing country that has ostensibly implemented accounting reforms prescribed by the World Bank. It has revealed the key firm- and field-level logics that are experienced and managed by regulators and corporate managers in their approaches to financial reporting and accountability. The World Bank-led accounting reform can be constrained by a complex mix of institutional logics originating from market and corporate structures, networks of institutionalised family and political relationships, professional and regulatory structure and resourcing limitations and cultural business conventions. This paper provides evidence of firm- and field-level logics that contest and influence the emergence of a financial reporting oversight body and lead to highly variable compliance with international accounting standards.

This paper aims to extend our knowledge beyond broad national-level elements of institutional orders. It presents a more penetrating examination of the existence and contestation of logics originating from various local and global actors and interests. It presents a theoretical mapping of institutional logics, which operate in international and local settings and also encompass firm- and field-level imperatives. Any effort to understand and improve accounting practices of a developing country need to consider the power, contestation and influence of multiple logics operating in its institutional environment.

The purpose of this paper is to design and manufacture an intelligent 3D printed sensor to monitor the re-occurrence of diaphragmatic hernia (DH; after surgery) in bovines as an Internet of Things (IOT)-based solution.

The approach used in this study is based on a bibliographic analysis for the re-occurrence of DH in the bovine after surgery. Using SolidWorks and ANSYS, the computer-aided design model of the implant was 3D printed based on literature and discussions on surgical techniques with a veterinarian. To ensure the error-proof design, load test and strain–stress rate analyses with boundary distortion have been carried out for the implant sub-assembly.

An innovative IOT-based additive manufacturing solution has been presented for the construction of a mesh-type sensor (for the health monitoring of bovine after surgery).

An innovative mesh-type sensor has been fabricated by integration of metal and polymer 3D printing (comprising 17–4 precipitate hardened stainless steel and polyvinylidene fluoride-hydroxyapatite-chitosan) without sacrificing strength and specific absorption ratio value.

This study aims to demonstrate al-Biruni’s originality in the study of religion and the exploration of religious truth, while his firm stance on his religion effectively advocated his need to understand others more accurately.

This study is a review of al-Biruni’s literature that uses content analysis method in establishing al-Biruni’s approach in understanding other religions through three main methodologies. From these approaches, this paper advocates al-Biruni’s firm stance toward his own faith despite using a scientific study on Hindu, which is in contrary to other phenomenological scholars who find that religious truth is relative in nature.

Al-Biruni’s methods have proven that researchers are not necessarily required to dispose off their religious identity and commitment to faith, while simultaneously achieving objectivity and accuracy. Al-Biruni’s approach to understanding others may be seen as a remarkable early model of interfaith, intercultural and inter-civilizational dialogue seeking, eventually, to promote a harmonious co-existence within a highly polarized cultural and religious context. This inquiry demonstrates al-Biruni’s scholarly depth in his attempt to harmonize his methodology with the study of religious phenomena in compliance with Islam.

This study signifies al-Biruni’s intellectual background with his mastery of first-hand information as a solid basis and grounds for the effective understanding of others in a descriptive, systematic and comparative manner. This paper also signifies al-Biruni’s methods of understanding others without having to dispose off one’s religious identity and commitment to faith which could be exemplified by other religious scholars.

This study aims to observe the coloring efficacy of coffee-based natural brown colorant for cotton dyeing under microwave (MW) treatment.

The colorant extracted in particular (neutral and acidic) media was stimulated by MW treatment up to 6 min. Dyeing variables were optimized and 2–10 g/100 mL of sustainable anchors (mordants) have been used to get colorfast shades.

It has been found that un-irradiated acidic extract (RE) containing 5% of table salt at 80 °C for 50 min has given high color yield onto MW-irradiated cotton fabric (RC = 2 min). The utilization of 2% of Fe, 10% of tannic acid and 10% of sodium potassium tartrate before bio-coloration, whereas 4% of Fe, 10% of tannic acid and 6% of sodium potassium tartrate after bio-coloration has given good color characteristics. In comparison the application of 6% of pomegranate and turmeric extracts before bio-coloration and 6% of pomegranate and 10% of turmeric extracts after bio-coloration have given good color characteristics. New bio-mordants can be added to get more new colorfast shades.

There is no research limitation for this work. New bio-mordants can be added to get more new colorfast shades.

This work has practical application for artisans, textile industry and handicrafts. It is concluded that colorant from coffee beans can be possible alternative of synthetic brown dyes and inclusion of MW rays for extraction and plant molecules as shade developers can make process more green.

Socially, it has good impact on eco-system and global community because the effluent load is not carcinogenic in nature.

The work is original and contains value-added product for textiles and other allied fields.

The paper aims to explore the attributes and systemic characteristics of absorptive capacity in sustainability oriented firms in India. Such understanding shall pave a way to integrate knowledge about societal stakeholders with technological and market knowledge. The study may help other firms to benchmark their business process considering sustainability aspects to integrate a broader set of stakeholders in decision making.

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to gather responses from 689 managers of 60 firms belonging to various industry sectors. Absorptive capacity of firms based on result of factorial analysis, variances explained by factors and rank of attributes is presented.

The study provides a glimpse of variability in steps taken by firms to remain competitive in current and future markets. This study highlights the importance of benefits sharing among alliance partners, knowledge-management processes, social integration for tacit knowledge and exploration of new knowledge sources. Surveyed firms require improvements in employee's skill set up-gradation, exploitation of knowledge spread across different departments and suitable training systems to promote knowledge sharing behaviour.

The sample of study covers respondents mainly from Health, Safety and Environment/Sustainability/Clean Development Mechanism departments so leading to certain biasness in their perception.

The study may lead organizations to transform business processes to integrate stakeholder's concerns and expectations.

The study may help organisations to develop important attributes of absorptive capacity for effective integration of stakeholders considering sustainability challenges.

This research article enhances understanding on common aspects of absorptive capacity, dynamic capability and sustainability strategies.

The purpose of this study is to extensively explore the vehicular network paradigm, challenges faced by them and provide a reasonable solution for securing these vulnerable networks. Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication has brought the long-anticipated goal of safe, convenient and sustainable transportation closer to reality. The connected vehicle (CV) paradigm is critical to the intelligent transportation systems vision. It imagines a society free of a troublesome transportation system burdened by gridlock, fatal accidents and a polluted environment. The authors cannot overstate the importance of CVs in solving long-standing mobility issues and making travel safer and more convenient. It is high time to explore vehicular networks in detail to suggest solutions to the challenges encountered by these highly dynamic networks.

This paper compiles research on various V2X topics, from a comprehensive overview of V2X networks to their unique characteristics and challenges. In doing so, the authors identify multiple issues encountered by V2X communication networks due to their open communication nature and high mobility, especially from a security perspective. Thus, this paper proposes a trust-based model to secure vehicular networks. The proposed approach uses the communicating nodes’ behavior to establish trustworthy relationships. The proposed model only allows trusted nodes to communicate among themselves while isolating malicious nodes to achieve secure communication.

Despite the benefits offered by V2X networks, they have associated challenges. As the number of CVs on the roads increase, so does the attack surface. Connected cars provide numerous safety-critical applications that, if compromised, can result in fatal consequences. While cryptographic mechanisms effectively prevent external attacks, various studies propose trust-based models to complement cryptographic solutions for dealing with internal attacks. While numerous trust-based models have been proposed, there is room for improvement in malicious node detection and complexity. Optimizing the number of nodes considered in trust calculation can reduce the complexity of state-of-the-art solutions. The theoretical analysis of the proposed model exhibits an improvement in trust calculation, better malicious node detection and fewer computations.

The proposed model is the first to add another dimension to trust calculation by incorporating opinions about recommender nodes. The added dimension improves the trust calculation resulting in better performance in thwarting attacks and enhancing security while also reducing the trust calculation complexity.