In many scheduling studies, researchers consider the processing times of jobs as constant numbers. This assumption sometimes is at odds with practical manufacturing process due to several sources of uncertainties arising from real-life situations. Examples are the changing working environments, machine breakdowns, tool quality variations and unavailability, and so on. In light of the phenomenon of scenario-dependent processing times existing in many applications, this paper proposes to incorporate scenario-dependent processing times into a two-machine flow-shop environment with the objective of minimizing the total completion time. The problem under consideration is never explored. To solve it, we first derive a lower bound and two optimality properties to enhance the searching efficiency of a branch-and-bound method. Then, we propose 12 simple heuristics and their corresponding counterparts improved by a pairwise interchange method. Furthermore, we set proposed 12 simple heuristics as the 12 initial seeds to design 12 variants of a cloud theory-based simulated annealing (CSA) algorithm. Finally, we conduct simulations and report the performances of the proposed branch-and-bound method, the 12 heuristics, and the 12 variants of CSA algorithm.

No abstract

No abstract

Adoption of innovative products such as smartphones may be due to a mixture of experienced considerations and psychological perceptions. By synthesising adoption theories through reinforcement of the role of conformity. This study explores user intention to adopt innovative smartphones in the Taiwan telecommunication market. The survey data is analysed using structural equation modelling which is based on the constructs of ease of use, compatibility, and relative advantage, analysis results indicate that informational conformity and normative conformity are positively related to the intention to use smartphones. Additionally, early adopters and early majority users have a higher likelihood of conformity driven by informational influence, while the late majority users display a higher tendency towards normative conformity. The results of this study significantly contribute to efforts of Elucidating the role of conformity in innovative smartphones 57 mobile communication operators to anticipate and predict a customer's intention to adopt smartphones, thus provides further insight into the development of marketing strategies for smartphones.

This paper analyzes the representation behaviors of a comparison measure between two compared fuzzy sets. Three types of restrictions on two fuzzy sets are considered in this paper: two disjoint union fuzzy sets, two disjoint fuzzy sets and two general fuzzy sets. Differences exist among the numbers of possible representations of a comparison measure for the three types of fuzzy sets restrictions. The value of comparison measure is constant for two disjoint union fuzzy sets. There are 49 candidate representations of a comparison measure for two disjoint fuzzy sets, of which 13 candidate representations with one or two terms are obtained. For each candidate representation, a variant of the general axiomatic definition for a comparison measure is presented. Choosing the right candidate representation for a given application, we can easily and efficiently calculate and compare a comparison measure.