Abstract
The technological development of recent years has impacted the way companies, workers, and customers organize and interact with each other. Food retail stands out amongst the most affected sectors. New technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), lead to the emergence of a new retail concept, Smart Retailing, bringing benefits, not only for the retailer, but also for the consumer. In addition, they impact the jobs, in particular, store assistants' job. Despite the growing academic interest in these topics, the acceptance and impact of AI-based solutions on store assistants is scarcely studied. This work aims, therefore, to study the acceptance and perception of AI-based solutions by store assistants in food retail. Qualitative research was performed, having carried out 20 interviews with food retail store assistants that already work with AI-based solutions. Results show that store assistants are aware of what AI is and in which solutions it is used. They perceive these solutions as being beneficial for the performance of their duties, complementing their work instead of replacing them. They are willing to use these solutions and perceive them as being easy and intuitive to use. This study contributes with a starting point for future research on the topic. © 2023 IEEE.

Abstract
Supplier selection for strategic items requires a comprehensive framework dealing with qualitative and quantitative aspects of a company's competitive priorities and supply risk, decision scope, and uncertainty. In order to address these aspects, this study aims to tackle supplier selection for strategic items with a multi-sourcing, taking into account multi-criteria, incorporating uncertainty of decision-makers judgment and supplier-buyer parameters, and integrating with inventory management which the past studies have not addressed well. We develop a novel two-phase solution approach based on integrated multi-criteria decision -making (MCDM) and multi-objective simulation-optimization (S-O). First, MCDM methods, including fuzzy AHP and interval TOPSIS, are applied to calculate suppliers' scores, incorporating uncertain decision makers' judgment. S-O then combines the (quantitative) cost-related criteria and considers supply disruptions and uncertain supplier-buyer parameters. By running this approach on data generated based on previous studies, we evaluate the impact of the decision maker's and the objective's weight, which are considered important in supplier selection.

Abstract
This article addresses the Production Routing Problem (PRP), which consists of determining, in an integrated way, production and inventory planning, and vehicle routing to minimize the costs involved. In the problem, a plant is responsible for producing several types of products to meet the known demand of a set of customers using a homogeneous fleet of vehicles over the planning horizon. In the literature, evolutionary approaches have not been explored in depth for the PRP, specifically for the problem with multiple products. Thus, this work mitigates this gap, presenting a novel Memetic Algorithm and testing its effectiveness on randomly generated sets of instances, comparing the results obtained with a commercial optimization solver. In our solution approach, several classic operators from the literature were implemented. Furthermore, we propose four novel genetic operators. In addition, we evaluated the proposed method's performance in classical instances of literature considering a single item. The computational experiments were carried out to assess the impact of the numerous parameter combinations involving the metaheuristic, and, from statistical analyses, we evidence the proposed technique's robustness. Computational experiments showed that our proposed method outperforms the commercial solver Gurobi in determining feasibly high-quality solutions, mainly on large instances for the PRP with multiple items.

Abstract
Background and aims: currently, most endoscopy software only provides limited statistics of past procedures, while none allows patterns to be extrapolated. To overcome this need, the authors applied business analytic models to pre-dict future demand and the need for endoscopists in a ter-tiary hospital Endoscopy Unit. Methods: a query to the endoscopy database was per-formed to retrieve demand from 2015 to 2021. The graphi-cal inspection allowed inferring of trends and seasonality, perceiving the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and se-lecting the best forecasting models. Considering COVID-19's impact in the second quarter of 2020, data for esoph-agogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and colonoscopy was estimated using linear regression of historical data. The actual demand in the first two quarters of 2022 was used to validate the models. Results: during the study period, 53,886 procedures were requested. The best forecasting models were: a) simple sea-sonal exponential smoothing for EGD, colonoscopy and percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG); b) double ex-ponential smoothing for capsule endoscopy and deep en-teroscopy; and c) simple exponential smoothing for endo-scopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). The mean average percent-age error ranged from 6.1 % (EGD) to 33.5 % (deep en - teroscopy). Overall, 8,788 procedures were predicted for 2022. The actual demand in the first two quarters of 2022 was within the predicted range. Considering the usual time allocation for each technique, 3.2 full-time equivalent en-doscopists (40 hours-dedication to endoscopy) will be re-quired to perform all procedures in 2022. Conclusions: the incorporation of business analytics into the endoscopy software and clinical practice may enhance resource allocation, improving patient-focused deci-sion-making and healthcare quality.

Abstract
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have sought new supply chain paradigms that allowed them to focus on core activities, i.e. overall product design and commercialisation. This pursuit led to partnerships with a new generation of tier-1 strategic suppliers acting as integrators. Integrators are not only responsible for system supply, but also for system design. However, critical integrators were not able to live up to their new roles, which led to costly delays in development and production. These failures highlight the ineptitude of current risk management practices employed by OEMs. To support OEMs in implementing a more differentiated and suitable approach to the use of integrators, this paper proposes a mathematical programming model for Supply Chain Design (SCD). Instead of looking at the introduction of integrators as a dichotomous decision, the model suggests the optimal number of integrators, i.e. systems, and individual part suppliers. We propose new measures for integration risk, which build upon current risk assessment practices. Robust optimisation is used to study the effect of uncertainty over baseline risk values. All approaches were tested using both randomly generated instances and real data from a large European OEM in the aerospace industry.

Abstract
Due to an increase in population, urban centers are currently seeing an increase in traffic, resulting in negative consequences such as pollution and congestion. Efforts have been made to promote a modal shift towards the use of more sustainable means of transport, such as walking and cycling, but several deterrents influence the citizens' perceptions of safety, security and comfort, discouraging their choice of active modes of transport. This study focuses on the importance of providing meaningful information to vulnerable road users (VRUs) to support their perceptions and objectives while moving within urban spaces through a novel concept of route planning. A broad survey of the needs and concerns of VRUs through interviews, focus groups and questionnaires, applied to the Portuguese population of the Metropolitan Area of Porto, led to the development of a new concept of route planners that show personalized routes according to the individual perceptions of each user. This concept is materialized in a route planner prototype that has been extensively tested by potential users. Subjective evaluation and feedback showed the usefulness of the concept and added value to a familiar product, leading to a satisfying experience for participants. This study shows that there is an opportunity to improve these tools to provide a higher degree of power and customization to users on route planning, which includes addressing mobility restrictions and personal perceptions of safety, security and comfort. The ultimate goal of this new approach is to persuade citizens to switch to more sustainable means of transport.