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The main goal of this research is to analyze and assess the barriers to Digital Transformation (DT) of the healthcare Supply Chain (SC) in developing countries and evaluate strategies to overcome such barriers. The DT has been related not only to the development of SC performance but also to the expansion of its resilience capabilities in a healthcare setting to overcome the results of unavoidable risk events and return to its previous or new state, which has at least the same or better conditions, after the occurrence of an unpredicted event.

Assessment of the barriers and determination of the importance or effectiveness of proposed strategies to handle these barriers are conducted through a hybrid Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making method consisting of an Analytical Hierarchy Process and multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) under picture fuzzy (PiF) environment.

Based on the outcomes of the research, the most important barriers for DT in healthcare SC functions were the organizational and technological issues, including Low support from top managers (O1), Lack of digital culture (O2), and Info/data safety and privacy (T4). To handle these barriers, the prior strategy was selected as “Making breakthroughs and incentives of top managers for the DT in the industry (ST3)”.

The study may be extended to include developed countries and or experts from developed countries. Through this, the study will be generalized to a global level. The most common qualitative criteria, which include subjectivity, are considered. The research may be enhanced by including quantitative criteria in the decision-making process. The barriers related to DT for healthcare SC were considered. Thus, the study may be detailed by looking at the problem in terms of operational failure and determining the digital technology that can overcome such operational failures. The precedence or importance of any barrier may fluctuate with the upgradation of technological tools and improvements.

In terms of practical contribution, this research provides real-world suggestions to facilitate digital transformation in their SCs. Specifically, this study increases the awareness of healthcare and other industries' managers about obstacles that prevents digital transformation in SC and provides managerial path to relieve the effects of barriers.

To the authors' best knowledge, this is the first study to examine barriers of DT required for the promotion of resilient healthcare SCs in this concept. In addition, no previous research applied PiFSs-based AHP and MABAC integration to assess barriers and develop strategies for the DT of healthcare SC. The findings may be references for governmental institutions, policymakers, decision-makers, and stakeholders to develop proper strategies for a successful DT in healthcare SC resilience and the healthcare industry.

The mixed assumed strain approach proposed by Simo and Rifai is used to derive three 8‐noded hexahedral mixed strain elements. The approach is also generalized to geometrically non‐linear problems. Based on the Galerkin form of Hu‐Washizu three field variational principle, the Green‐Lagrange strain tensor and the second Piola‐Kirchhoff stress tensor (symmetric) are employed to develop the geometrically non‐linear formulation for 2D and 3D mixed enhanced strain elements. Numerical results are presented to show that the resulting hexahedral mixed strain elements possess all the ideal qualities. They are able to pass the patch test, do not exhibit the false shear phenomena and do not lock for nearly incompressible materials. Also, they are less sensitive to distorted meshes than standard isoparametric elements and exhibit high accuracy for both linear and non‐linear problems, permitting coarse discretizations to be utilized. The elements developed in this paper have been implemented in the general purpose FE package LUSAS.

This paper aims to identify, analyze and evaluate the major enablers for the sustainable public distribution system (PDS) supply chain in India in lessening food insecurity by distributing essentials food grains at a subsidized rate.

The major enablers for the sustainable PDS supply chain were explored by conducting the literature survey and discussion with academic and warehouse experts. Then, the fuzzy-DEMATEL (decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory) technique was applied to develop a causal model that analyses the interaction among the identified enablers.

This study recognizes fifteen enablers through literature survey and experts' opinions. The present work concludes that “proper identification of the PDS beneficiaries” and “willingness and commitment of the top management and policymaker” are the two major enablers for the sustainable PDS supply chain.

This work would be helpful for profoundly understanding the major enablers, and how they are affecting the entire PDS supply chain. The study would be beneficial for the general people and the entire society straightforwardly by providing suggestions for food security.

Identifying and analyzing the major enablers for the sustainable PDS supply chain helps to visualize the problem more effectively and efficiently. Besides, the causal model explains a comprehensive perspective on the identified enablers.

The cost-optimal analysis is not able to address the multi-dimensionality of the decision according to the new European objectives and International sustainable development goals in the field of the nearly-zero energy building (NZEB) design. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for guiding energy investment decisions.

The paper explores the Preference ranking organization method for enrichment of evaluations II (PROMETHEE II) application to support the project of transforming a rural building into a NZEB. The evaluation provides an estimate of the effects of alternative energy efficiency measures, involving energy consumption, life cycle costs, carbon emissions, property value and indoor comfort criteria. The study performs a multi-actors analysis in order to understand how different consumers' point of views can influence the final choice of the best investment. Furthermore, a multi-site analysis explores the spatial variation of NZEB building appreciation in the real estate market.

The PROMETHEE II-based model ranks 16 alternative solutions for the NZEB according to energy, economic and extra-economic criteria. The multi-actors analysis highlights the configuration of the NZEB building that best meets the needs of different end-users, respecting the European directives and national standards. The multi-site analysis concludes that location does not change users' appreciation and not influence the output for the best solution.

The MCDA occurs as a support tool that helps to optimize the preliminary design phase of NZEB through the exploration of the optimal solution considering crucial criteria in the energy and environmental and real estate market rules.

Highways are one of the most critical infrastructure projects with strategic impact on the countries’ development. Asphalt has been historically the main pavement material used in all highway projects, especially in Egypt. However, with the booming in concrete technology in the past two decades, concrete has become a strong rival to asphalt, especially in highway applications. Several factors impact the decision-making criteria for any highway, which differ according to the priorities and requirements of each decision-maker and the nature of the project.

This research focuses on studying and analyzing the different factors that impact the decision for selecting the material type for highways in Egypt’s pavement construction industry. The outputs of the analysis are then incorporated into a multi-decision-making tool to assess the optimum solution as per the priorities of the decision-maker. A holistic framework is developed to compare asphalt and concrete pavements solutions considering; initial cost, maintenance cost on the life cycle, construction duration, embodied energy and fuel consumption. The data collection on local highways was performed through interviewing and surveying experts in the consulting, contracting and building materials fields (total of 15 respondents).

A multi-decision-making tool developed using the superiority and inferiority ranking method for selecting the best alternate. To illustrate the practicality of the proposed framework, a case study for assessment and validation has been done on Sokhna–Quarries highway in Egypt. The framework results reveal that despite a lower initial cost and faster construction of asphalt, concrete pavement is more cost-efficient on the lifecycle time. The multi-decision-making model indicates that concrete is a better alternate for highway applications given the cost, time and energy factors considered.

The proposed model takes into consideration the important parameters in selecting the type of pavement to be constructed considering two alternates asphalt and concrete.

Loyalty has, over the past decade, become a crucial construct in marketing, and particularly in the burgeoning field of customer relationship management. This paper shows that customer loyalty can be explained to a substantial degree by customer satisfaction, trust, and communication, and shows the direct and indirect effects among those constructs and other constructs in an extension of the European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) model. Both ECSI model and the extended model are estimated with data from a survey carried out among customers of the banking sector. Within the limitations of the study, the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

Among the large number of currently available approaches for studying customer satisfaction, a very promising one is that adopted in the European customer satisfaction index (ECSI) model. Yet, in spite of its various contributions to customer satisfaction research, this approach exhibits certain limitations, of which we will emphasise one: contrary to compelling evidence, the model does not consider the service climate or, more specifically, the cause and effect relationship between employee behaviour and customer satisfaction. The main goal of the present paper is to contribute to counteracting such a limitation. A reformulation of the ECSI model is suggested, integrating it into key components of employee satisfaction models (employee satisfaction, loyalty and commitment) as they are perceived by customers. Both the ECSI model and the ECSI revised model are estimated with data from a survey carried out among supermarket customers. The results show that some variables such as perceived quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty are better explained by the ECSI revised model. Also, statistically significant interactions between the new variables (with the exception of employee loyalty) and some of the ECSI model variables (perceived product quality and perceived service quality) were discovered.

In the framework of the finite element method, the problem of elasto‐plastic consolidation gives rise to a system of non‐linear, coupled residual equations which satisfy the conditions of balance of momentum and balance of mass. In determining the roots of these equations it is necessary that the coupled equations be linearized. To this end, the concept of ‘consistent linearization’ proposed by Simo and Taylor for a single‐phase system is applied to the two‐phase soil‐water system. The roots of the coupled residual equations are solved iteratively by employing Newton's method. It is shown that in non‐linear consolidation analyses, the use of a tangent coefficient matrix derived consistently from the integrated constitutive equation defining the characteristics of the solid skeletal phase results in an iterative solution scheme which preserves the asymptotic rate of quadratic convergence of Newton's method. Numerical examples involving combined radial and vertical flows through an elasto‐plastic soil medium are presented to demonstrate the computational superiority of the above technique over the method based on standard ‘elasto‐plastic continuum formulations’ adopted in most finite element codes.

A fully mixed hybrid 4‐node shell element for linear analyses is presented and compared to the current state‐of‐the‐art. The specific improvements developed concern the stress assumptions for the transverse shear stresses in the in‐plane directions, such that the element is applicable for arbitrary element geometries without shear locking and satisfies the patch test exactly. Furthermore, in analogy to the membrane and bending part the shear part of the stiffness matrix can be formulated as a one‐point integrated constant part with a rank‐two update representing the linear parts. However, this efficient formulation leads to additional approximations concerning the geometry of arbitrarily curved elements. The latter aspect is discussed with some numerical examples, which demonstrate the capabilities of the developed element.

Recent developments in the psychometric assessment of youth psychopathic traits suggest that the inclusion of a conduct disorder (CD) factor to the traditional three factors of the psychopathy construct may improve the incremental validity of these measures. The purpose of the current study is to examine whether the addition of a CD factor incrementally improves the ability of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory Short version (YPI-S) to predict criminal recidivism.

A longitudinal quantitative research design was used with a sample detained male youth (N = 214, M_age = 16.4 years, SD_age = 1.3 years).

Results using the area under the curve analysis suggest that the inclusion of a CD factor slightly improves the capacity of the YPI-S to predict one-year general criminal recidivism, but it does not significantly increase its capacity to predict violent criminal recidivism. Results also indicate that a CD scale outperforms the YPI-S, even with an additional CD factor included, in terms of predicting one-year general and violent recidivism.

Self-reported youth psychopathic trait measures, even those that include a CD factor as a fourth factor, should be used with caution when the aim is to predict youth criminal recidivism.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study using a self-reported youth psychopathic traits measure with a CD factor to examine youth criminal recidivism.