The supply chain disruption caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has forced many manufacturers to look for alternative suppliers. How to choose a suitable alternative supplier in the COVID-19 pandemic has become an important task. To fulfill this task, this research proposes a calibrated fuzzy geometric mean (cFGM)-fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS)-fuzzy weighted intersection (FWI) approach. In the proposed methodology, first, the cFGM method is proposed to accurately derive the priorities of criteria. Subsequently, each expert applies the FTOPSIS method to compare the overall performances of alternative suppliers in the COVID-19 pandemic. The sensitivity of an expert to any change in the overall performance of the alternative supplier is also considered. Finally, the FWI operator is used to aggregate the comparison results by all experts, for which an expert’s authority level is set to a value proportional to the consistency of his/her pairwise comparison results. The cFGM-FTOPSIS-FWI approach has been applied to select suitable alternative suppliers for a Taiwanese foundry in the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study explores the preferred viewing distance and character size for an electronic paper display for three age groups. Proofreading speed and accuracy ratio were measured during Chinese proofreading tests using the preferred character size and minimum acceptable character size. Data analysis showed that the mean preferred viewing distance for young, middle-aged and older groups was 503, 455 and 444 mm, respectively. The mean preferred character size determined by young, middle-aged and older groups was 42.0, 50.0 and 55.2 min arc, respectively. The proofreading test results indicated that the older group proofread significantly more slowly (1.25word/sec) than the young (1.76 word/sec) and middle-aged groups (1.74 word/sec). Further, the participants proofread more correctly with their preferred character size (73.3%) than with their minimum acceptable character size (65.4%). This study provides valuable information for the design of Chinese text presentations for various agegroups. Statement of Relevance: This study confirmed the preferred viewing distance and character size for E-paper display were influenced by age. The preferred Chinese character size for young, middle-aged and older people was 42, 50 and 55 min arc, respectively. Therefore, the age factor should be considered for E-paper displays design and video display terminal (VDT) guidelines.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted our daily lives. For tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, various intervention strategies have been adopted by country (or city) governments around the world. However, whether an intervention strategy will be successful, acceptable, and cost-effective or not is still questionable. To address this issue, a varying partial consensus fuzzy collaborative intelligence approach is proposed in this study to assess an intervention strategy. In the varying partial consensus fuzzy collaborative intelligence approach, multiple decision makers express their judgments on the relative priorities of factors critical to an intervention strategy. If decision makers lack an overall consensus, the layered partial consensus approach is applied to aggregate their judgments for each critical factor. The number of decision makers that reach a partial consensus varies from a critical factor to another. Subsequently, the generalized fuzzy weighted assessment approach is proposed to evaluate the overall performance of an intervention strategy for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed methodology has been applied to compare 15 existing intervention strategies for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most existing fuzzy AHP (FAHP) methods use triangular fuzzy numbers to approximate the fuzzy priorities of criteria, which is inaccurate. To obtain accurate fuzzy priorities, time-consuming alpha-cut operations are usually required. In order to improve the accuracy and efficiency of estimating the fuzzy priorities of criteria, the piecewise linear fuzzy geometric mean (PLFGM) approach is proposed in this study. The PLFGM method estimates the α cuts of fuzzy priorities and then connects these α cuts with straight lines. As a result, the estimated fuzzy priorities will have piecewise linear membership functions that resemble the real shapes. The PLFGM approach has been applied to the identification of critical features for a smart backpack design. According to the experimental results, the PLFGM approach improved the accuracy and efficiency of estimating the fuzzy priorities of these critical features by 33% and 80%, respectively.