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The world has an ageing population who want to stay at home, many of whom are unable to care for themselves without help. As the number of available carers is becoming saturated by demand, research is being carried out into how technology could assist elderly people in the home. A barrier preventing wide adoption is that this audience can find controlling assistive technology difficult, as they may be less dexterous and computer literate. This paper explores the use of gestures to control home automation, hoping to provide a more natural and intuitive interface to help bridge the gap between technology and older users. A prototype was created, and then trialled with a small panel of older users. Using the Nintendo Wii Remote (Wiimote) technology, gestures performed in the air were captured using an infrared camera. Computational intelligence techniques were then used to recognise and learn the gestures. This resulted in sending the command to standard home automation X10 units to control a number of attached electrical devices. It was found that although older people could readily use gestures to control devices, configuration of a home system might remain a task for carers or technicians.

Knowledge is recognized as a valuable asset and universities are in search of a new strategy that allows them to build their knowledge and experience. To achieve this goal, it seems essential to find the factors associated with knowledge creation (KC) in universities. There is currently no comprehensive model that delineates the relationships between personal, institutional and support-related factors of KC. The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the factors that affect KC in higher education institutions.

This is an explanatory mixed methods approach that consists of qualitative and quantitative stages. In the qualitative phase, 14 authorities on KC were interviewed and the data yielded were subjected to content analysis. A model and hypotheses were then formulated and a questionnaire was developed to test these. The questionnaire was submitted to faculty members of Tehran University. Questionnaire data were was analyzed using structural equation and partial least squares with the aid of SmartPLS.

The results showed three main categories of KC factors: institutional, personal and support. A total of 19 sub-factors were identified within these main categories. According to the results, social capital (path coefficient=0.84) had the strongest correlation with the institutional; basic skills for KC (path coefficient=0.92) had the strongest correlation with the personal, and information and library resources (path coefficient=0.95) had the highest correlation with the support aspect of KC.

The study uses a multidimensional approach to test the effect of factors on KC, and can contribute to organizations (especially universities) through developing a more comprehensive model of KC. This research may lead to guidelines for universities, using Tehran University as a case study, which give more attention to the main factors of KC and improve and develop the KC process.

Safety, one of the basic human needs for existence, is a very important factor in achieving a successful urban space. A lack of its presence could make it challenging for residents of a place to live and function effectively. Therefore, this study aims to identify the urban design attributes that would potentially enhance the perceived sense of safety, mainly focusing on two case studies in El-Sherouk neighborhood in Cairo. The two selected case studies are considered car-oriented due to their reduced levels of safety.

This study was conducted through a set of data collection phases from field surveys and survey questionnaires that infer the influence of the surrounding urban environment on a specific target group. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) statistical analysis tool was used to analyze data collected from survey questionnaires.

Finally, by the end of this research, a set of urban design qualities vital for achieving the desired levels of safety were introduced. The findings of this study revealed key urban design qualities that can potentially contribute to enhancing the perceived sense of safety as they showed a strong positive correlation: (1) imageability, (2) transparency, (3) complexity and (4) human scale and enclosure. Moreover, multiple linear regression indicates that urban design qualities are strong predictors of perceived safety.

This study presents a holistic approach to studying the relationship between urban design and perceived safety by examining two case studies located in El-Sherouk City in Cairo, Egypt. While previous research has focused on one theory of safety design such as crime prevention, defensible space theory, eyes on the street or safer city centers, this article tries to fill in the gap in the literature by analyzing all aspects of urban design and its correlation to an enhanced perceived safety. In addition, most of the previous studies have tackled the safety aspects of old urban settlements. However, this study tackles a new urban settlement.

Oil and gas sector has more disruptions regarding its logistics management than any other industry. It is critical to understand which external security threats disrupt the oil and gas supply chain (OGSC). Recently, the time interval between these disruptions became frequent. the purpose of this paper is to identify key logistics elements that lead to such disruptions which would greatly benefit the oil and gas industry in developing more effective mitigation measures and resilient practices in the future.

This research develops the theoretical framework through a critical review of all theories related to resilience, logistics disruptions and mitigation methods in the oil and gas industry. Afterward, semi-structured interviews were conducted with executives in the Egyptian oil and gas industry to develop a conceptual framework. Finally, an empirical study was conducted through questionnaires with managers in the Egyptian oil and gas sector to develop the applied framework.

This research revealed that achieving an elevated level of flexibility, redundancy, visibility and collaboration in the Egyptian OGSC will significantly increase the level of resilience in the sector and consequently help in mitigating probable logistics disruptions.

This research contributes to academia by providing a conceptual framework for the most common logistics disruptions in the Egyptian OGSC and providing practitioners with the best resilience practices that are feasible and effective in mitigating logistics disruptions.

Previous research studied disruptions in OGSC from different perspectives: economic, social, political, technical, safety, legal and environmental perspectives, but no research highlighted the logistics perspective in the Egyptian context, to the best of the authors’ knowledge.

This paper aims to study the role of ethics in the social innovation process and its effect on entrepreneurial passion. It explores the factors that encourage social entrepreneurs to innovate by examining the concepts of harmonious and obsessive passion and ethics.

The database consists of 97 entrepreneurs who benefited from the services offered by the support organizations for social entrepreneurs. The data are analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results show that Islamic ethics has a positive effect on social innovation. This effect can be further amplified by harmonious passion (HP). Such passion certainly strengthens social entrepreneurs throughout the innovation process and consolidates the implementation phase of their projects.

This study highlights the importance of ethics in the process of social innovation. Ethics acts directly or through HP to stimulate social innovation. This passion enables taking actions and favors the creation of innovative social projects.

These findings add value to the previous literature by introducing ethics into the entrepreneurial passion theory and exploring new factors that promote social innovation.

Female entrepreneurship discussions will broaden and diversify as a result of global shifts. Studies of female entrepreneurship must take into account differences between male and female entrepreneurs due to the historical, cultural and social specificity of developing countries to narrow gender gaps, identify barriers, fine-tune support systems, release dormant potential and provide information for policymaking. This paper aims to measure and estimate the most crucial socioeconomic characteristics that Southeast Asian countries leverage to advance women’s business initiatives.

Using a panel data model whereby the Female Entrepreneurship Indicator Score serves as the dependent variable and the ten most important socioeconomic indicators serve as the independent variables. Ten southeast Asian countries are analyzed using the panel fixed effects approach of Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MM-QR) from 1980 to 2021.

It has been found by empirical panel quantile regression using the MM-QR method that the following indicators positively affect female entrepreneurship in southeast Asian countries: the assets indicator, the pay indicator, the workplace indicator, the mobility indicator and the a woman can sign a contract in the same way as a man indicator. But the parenthood indicator, the unemployment indicator, the school enrollment indicator, the men and women have equal ownership rights to immovable property indicator and the marriage indicator all have negative effects.

This paper uses a new method called MM-QR to look at how the most important socioeconomic factors affect female entrepreneurship in Southeast Asian countries. The results obtained will also add to and broaden the small amount of research that has been done on female entrepreneurs in developing countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasises the need for antiviral materials that can reduce airborne and surface-based virus transmission. This study aims to propose the use of additive manufacturing (AM) and surrogate modelling for the rapid development and deployment of novel copper-tungsten-silver (Cu-W-Ag) microporous architecture that shows strong antiviral behaviour against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

The research combines selective laser melting (SLM), in-situ alloying and surrogate modelling to conceive the antiviral Cu-W-Ag architecture. The approach is shown to be suitable for redistributed manufacturing by representing the pore morphology through a surrogate model that parametrically manipulates the SLM process parameters: hatch distance (h_d), scan speed (S_s) and laser power (L_p). The method drastically simplifies the three-dimensional (3D) printing of microporous materials by requiring only global geometrical dimensions solving current bottlenecks associated with high computed aided design data transfer required for the AM of porous materials.

The surrogate model developed in this study achieved an optimum parametric combination that resulted in microporous Cu-W-Ag with average pore sizes of 80 µm. Subsequent antiviral evaluation of the optimum architecture showed 100% viral inactivation within 5 h against a biosafe enveloped ribonucleic acid viral model of SARS-CoV-2.

The Cu-W-Ag architecture is suitable for redistributed manufacturing and can help reduce surface contamination of SARS-CoV-2. Nevertheless, further optimisation may improve the virus inactivation time.

The study was extended to demonstrate an open-source 3D printed Cu-W-Ag antiviral mask filter prototype.

The evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic brings new and unpredictable challenges where redistributed manufacturing of 3D printed antiviral materials can achieve rapid solutions.

The papers present for the first time a methodology to digitally conceive and print-on-demand a novel Cu-W-Ag alloy that shows high antiviral behaviour against SARS-CoV-2.

This study aims to investigate the influence of supply chain resilience (SCR) and supply chain capabilities (SCC) on supply chain performance (SCP) through the direct and moderating influence of the degree of SCR (DSCR), as demonstrated in UAE energy industry supply chain management (SCM) processes.

Using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), a questionnaire-survey collected 168 valid responses from UAE-based companies that operate within the energy industry. This study investigates the moderated mediation research model of the SCR, SCC and SCP with DSCR being considered as the variable having the moderation role.

SCR and SCC were found to have a significant positive affect on SCP playing a mediating role in improving performance during or after a SC disruption. However, the objective was to confirm the exitance of the moderator role in DSCR to substantiate its moderated mediating effect in the research model. There was a negative moderating effect of SCR on SCP through SCC.

This is among the pioneer study that suggests and empirically tests the moderated mediating impacts of the SCR degree on the relationships between SCR, capability within a supply chain and its performance. An additional element of originality of this study is its relevance to the UAE energy industry and recent SC disruptions.

This study aims to explore the pandemic's opportunities for enhancing the environmental practices of the food and beverages green supply chains and its effect on the supply chains' viability by exploring the relationship between fear and uncertainty of COVID-19, food and beverages green supply chain management (F&B-GSCM) and supply chains’ viability based on the two dimensions (robustness and resilience) and examine the moderating effect of innovative technology adoption like big data analysis (BDA) capabilities and blockchain technologies (BCT) on this relationship.

This study adopted partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on a sample of 362 F&B small and medium enterprises (SMEs)’ managers in the Egyptian market for data analysis and hypothesis testing.

The empirical results show that the fear and uncertainty of the pandemic have a significant positive effect on green supply chain management (GSCM). Also, BDA moderates the relationship between fear and uncertainty of COVID-19 and GSCM. However, BCT do not moderate that relationship. Similarly, GSCM positively affects supply chain viability dimensions (robustness and resilience). In addition, F&B-GSCM significantly mediates the relationship between fear and uncertainty of COVID-19 and supply chain viability dimensions (robustness and resilience).

Food and beverages (F&B) managers could develop a consistent strategy for applying BCT and BDA to provide clear information and focus on their procedures to meet their stakeholders' needs during COVID-19. Governments and managers should develop a consistent strategy to apply food and beverages supply chains (F&B SCs)' green practices to achieve F&B SCs' resilience and robustness, especially during the pandemic.

The Egyptian F&B SCs have been linked directly with many European countries as a main source of many basic food and agriculture products, which have been affected lately by the pandemic. Based on the “social-cognitive,” “stakeholder” and “resource-based view” theories, this study sheds light on the optimistic side of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it also brings the concepts of F&B-GSCM, SC resilience, SC robustness and innovative technologies back into the light, which helps in solving F&B SC issues and helps to achieve their viability.