T-Spherical Fuzzy Rough Interactive Power Heronian Mean Aggregation Operators for Multiple Attribute Group Decision-Making

In this article, to synthesize the merits of interaction operational laws (IOLs), rough numbers (RNs), power average (PA) and Heronian mean (HM), a new notion of T-spherical fuzzy rough numbers (T-SFRNs) is first introduced to describe the intention of group experts accurately and take the interaction between individual experts into account with complete and symmetric information. The distance measure and ordering rules of T-SFRNs are proposed, and the IOLs of T-SFRNs are extended. Next, the PA and HM are combined based on the IOLs of T-SFRNs, and the T-Spherical fuzzy rough interaction power Heronian mean operator and its weighted form are proposed. These aggregation operators can accurately express both individual and group uncertainty using T-SFRNs, capture the interaction among membership degree, abstinence degree and non-membership degree of T-SFRNs by employing IOLs, ensure the overall balance of variable values by the PA in the process of information fusion, and realize the interrelationship between attribute variables by the HM. Several properties and special cases of these aggregation operators are further presented and discussed. Subsequently, a new approach for dealing with T-spherical fuzzy multiple attribute group decision-making problems based on proposed aggregation operator is developed. Lastly, in order to validate the feasibility and reasonableness of the proposed approach, a numerical example is presented, and the superiorities of the proposed method are illustrated by describing a sensitivity analysis and a comparative analysis.

Enhance Contrast and Balance Color of Retinal Image

This paper proposes a simple and effective retinal fundus image simulation modeling to enhance contrast and adjust the color balance for symmetric information in biomedicine. The aim of the study is for reliable diagnosis of AMD (age-related macular degeneration) screening. The method consists of a few simple steps. Firstly, local image contrast is refined with the CLAHE (Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization) technique by operating CIE L*a*b* color space. Then, the contrast-enhanced image is stretched and rescaled by a histogram scaling equation to adjust the overall brightness offsets of the image and standardize it to Hubbard’s retinal image brightness range. The proposed method was assessed with retinal images from the DiaretDB0 and STARE datasets. The findings in the experimentation section indicate that the proposed method results in delightful color naturalness along with a standard color of retinal lesions.

Traceability of Sustainability and Safety in Fishery Supply Chain Management Systems Using Radio Frequency Identification Technology

At present, sustainability and emerging technology are the main issues in any supply chain management (SCM) sector. At the same time, the ongoing pandemic is increasing consumers’ concerns about food safety, processing, and distribution, which should meet sustainability requirements. Thus, supervision and monitoring of product quality with symmetric information traceability are important in fresh food and fishery SCM. Food safety and traceability systems based on blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), wireless sensor networks (WSN), and radio frequency identification (RFID) provide reliability from production to consumption. This review focuses on RFID-based traceability systems in fisheries’ SCM, which have been employed globally to ensure fish quality and security, and summarizes their advantages in real-time applications. The results of this study will help future researchers to improve consumers’ trust in fisheries SCM. Thus, this review aims to provide guidelines and solutions for enhancing the reliability of RFID-based traceability in food SCM systems so to ensure the integrity and transparency of product information.

How Venture Capital Influences High-tech Enterprises’ IPO: External Factors versus Internal Growth

There is huge potential for China to transform and upgrade its traditional manufacturing sector, and high-tech enterprises in manufacturing industries stand out. This study contributes to the literature on how venture capital affects technology-based Enterprises’ IPO by evaluating the characters between the two parties. According to the symmetric information theory, certification theory and enterprise property rights theory, the first round of risk financing enterprises from 2010 to 2019 is taken as a research sample to empirically analyze the impact of venture capital and corporate growth on firm listing events. The results show that the investment experience of venture capital institutions, when matched appropriately to firms’ specific growth, will facilitate and accelerate the IPO process. Thus the matching degree between the two are significantly positively related to the company's IPO. Under the premise of low growth of the company, venture capital has a significant impact on the listing of the company. As the growth of the company increases, the impact of venture capital on the listing of the company is gradually reduced. Venture capital institutions with overseas backgrounds are more inclined to promote the IPO of invested international companies. Finally, we discuss the implications based on the results of the empirical analysis, and make suggestions for venture capital institutions and companies.

An Extension TOPSIS Method Based on the Decision Maker’s Risk Attitude and the Adjusted Probabilistic Fuzzy Set

The paper studies an extension TOPSIS method with the adjusted probabilistic linguistic fuzzy set in which the decision maker’s behavior tendency is considered. Firstly, we propose a concept of probabilistic linguistic q-rung orthopair set (PLQROS) based on the probability linguistic fuzzy set (PLFS) and linguistic q-rung orthopair set (LQROS). The operational laws are introduced based on the transformed probabilistic linguistic q-rung orthopair sets (PLQROSs) which have the same probability. Through this adjustment method, the irrationality of the existing methods in the aggregation process is avoided. Furthermore, we propose a comparison rule of PLQROS and the aggregated operators. The distance measure of PLQROSs is also defined, which can deal with the symmetric information in multi-attribute decision making problems. Considering that the decision maker’s behavior has a very important impact on decision-making results, we propose a behavioral TOPSIS decision making method for PLQROS. Finally, we apply the practical problem of investment decision to demonstrate the validity of the extension TOPSIS method, and the merits of the behavior decision method is testified by comparing with the classic TOPSIS method. The sensitivity analysis results of decision-maker’s behavior are also given.

Heterogeneity in Farmers’ Social Preferences and the Design of Green Payment Schemes

We examine how social preferences affect the workings of voluntary green payment schemes and show that a regulator could use facilitation services along with a social reward to generate better ecological outcome at less cost by exploiting a farmer’s social preferences to gain a green social-image/reputation. To motivate our model, we first present the results of an incentivized elicitation survey in Scotland which shows that there is a social norm of biodiversity protection on private land among farmers. Moreover, the results of a discrete choice experiment reveal that farmers are willing to give up economic rents for more publicity of their conservation activities; this confirms the relevance of reputational gain in the context of green payment schemes. Our model assumes two types of farmers, green and brown, with a green farmer taking more biodiversity protection actions than a brown farmer. We design a menu of contracts that offers both monetary incentives and non-monetary incentives (a facilitation service with social reward) to induce both type of farmers to join the scheme and to exert first-best levels (i.e., symmetric information levels) of action. Results show that under asymmetric information the regulator can implement the symmetric information equilibrium levels of biodiversity protection actions with only non-monetary incentives for the green farmer and only monetary incentives for the brown farmer. This implies that a regulator can ensure better environmental outcomes, at a lower cost, by exploiting farmers’ social preferences and by offering non-monetary incentives.

An analysis of sustainability and channel coordination in a three-echelon supply chain

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the decision behaviors and channel coordination of a sustainable three-echelon supply chain with retailer-led game setting.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop game-theoretic models to examine the decision behaviors of channel members in a three-echelon supply chain consisting of one supplier, one distributor and one dominated retailer. The authors first formulate two models for centralized decision and decentralized decision. And then this paper proposes sub-supply chain coordination and a two-tariff contract to coordinate the full supply chain. Finally, some management insights are obtained with a case study.FindingsThe authors find that when faced with environmentally conscious consumers, the channel members can benefit from higher greening level; however, higher cost of green technologies would have negative impacts on manufacturer's effort. The analysis also shows that cooperation among players can improve the supply chain performance and help with environmental improvement.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings provide important managerial insights for the three-echelon supply chain to achieve sustainable goals where the retailer bears the environmental responsibility. However, this paper also has some limitations with assuming risk-neutral channel members and symmetric information.Originality/valueThe findings of the study contribute to coordination and collaboration in sustainability of supply chains. The results provide important managerial insights for the three-echelon supply chain to achieve sustainable goals.