This research aims to assess the impact of lean and agile operational strategies on improving order winners in the food service industry in the UAE. Research disclosed a few attributes with a dimensional review of lean and agile strategies that enhance strategic alignment in the food service industry of UAE to achieve the maximum benefits that have never been identified in research before. Data from 85 Sharjah-based food service companies were used for the analysis. A quantitative method with descriptive, causal and exploratory research design was used, along with convenient cluster sampling. A valid sample size of 255 respondents was used to assess the model through regression and ANOVA using SPSS. Research findings show a significant direct impact of lean strategies on order winners, and agile strategies significantly positively impact order winners. In contrast, both variables have a significant direct impact on order winners. This research is limited to assessing the impact of lean and agile strategies to achieve maximum order winners. Future research should consider a manufacturing industry to increase generalizability and a comprehensive focus on the lean and agile dimensional impact on competitive advantage. Customer loyalty and satisfaction lead a business toward order winners. An exemplary implementation of lean and agile strategies can translate into high business performance.

Aged workers were mostly questioned in terms of their work efficiency. However, as time changed and the structure of human resource in the organization also changed, older people became important part of all human resources in the organization. The study, hence, aimed 1) to study the level of work efficiency of aged workers; and 2) to study factors affecting work efficiency of aged workers. The study applied quantitative method using questionnaire as a data collection tool, collecting data from aged governmental officers in Nong Khai province, Thailand. There were 402 completed questionnaires which were taken for analysis. The finding presented that aged workers performed very high level of work efficiency using frequency, mean, and standard deviation techniques to analyze. To find the factors affecting work efficiency, the research applied multiple regression analysis. The finding presented that recognition and respect, fair evaluation, job design, and compensation were factors affecting work efficiency of aged governmental officers.

Reinforced concrete wall critical zones are the responsive areas of dissipated earthquake loads. They are formed in the connection of the wall panels and the fixed restraints. The longitudinal and transversal steel reinforcements with certain spacing are designed according to the required nominal strength at the connections. Under certain conditions, the reinforcement distance becomes very tight, making working on castings using normal concrete difficult. This condition also occurs in boundary elements consisting of longitudinal and transversal reinforcements in tight spaces. A concrete material that flows easily and solidifies itself is required to avoid segregation. One type of this material is Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC). The SCC performance as a wall panel material that withstands gravity and cyclic lateral loads still require further research. This study aimed to analyze the hysteretic performance of reinforced SCC wall panels with variations of shear reinforcement in resisting cyclic lateral loads. The analysis used software based on numerical analysis. The drift ratios, hysteretic curves, stress patterns, ductility, and stiffness of the wall panels were analyzed. The SCC wall panel with ordinary shear reinforcement resisted lateral positive and negative loads of 152.32 kN and 143.09 kN, respectively. In comparison, the wall panel with boundary elements and tighter shear reinforcements could withstand the positive and negative lateral loads of 187.62 kN and 145.98 kN, respectively. The SCC wall panel reached the best ductility of 21.38 with ordinary shear reinforcement because the yield occurred faster than in other wall panels. The results showed that the boundary elements and shear reinforcements of reinforced SCC wall panels affected the performance in resisting cyclic lateral loads.

There is an acute need to evaluate the energy consumption of buildings in response to climate change. The “occupant” factor has been largely overlooked in building energy analysis. This research aims at investigating occupancy existence in the office environment using a hybrid artificial neural network with metaheuristic algorithms for improved energy management. It proposes and compares three classification models, namely particle swarm optimization (PSO), gravitational search algorithm (GSA), and hybrid PSO-GSA in combination with the feedforward neural network (FFNN). The inputs to these models are data related to temperature, humidity, light, and carbon dioxide emissions. Two data sets are used for testing the models while the office door is open and closed. The capabilities of the optimized models are evaluated using best, average, median, and standard deviation of the mean squared error. Most of the performance metrics indicate that the FFNN-PSO-GSA model exhibits better performance compared to the other models using the two datasets. The proposed model yields a classification accuracy ranging between 98.47-98.73% using one predictor (i.e., temperature). Besides, it yields an accuracy ranging between 85.45-94.03% using temperature and CO2 predictors. It can be concluded that the FFNN combined with PSO and GSA algorithms can be a useful tool for occupancy detection modeling.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of entrepreneurial competence and competitiveness as mediating variable on the business success of apparel small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Greater Bandung (five cities/regencies). To collect data, some questionnaires were used. Out of the 128 companies in the apparel SMEs population, 96 were selected as representative sample. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The research outcomes revealed that entrepreneurial competence affected competitiveness, entrepreneurial competence affected business success directly and indirectly through competitiveness, and competitiveness affected business success. The managerial implication of this study is also discussed.

Medium and large industries are vital businesses that have an important role in economic development and growth in Indonesia, with abundant job opportunities available in these industrial sectors. This study aims to examine the effect of supplier integration, internal integration, and relationship management to customer relationships on operational performance and business performance, and the role of operational performance variables as a mediation. The data taken were 210 respondents involved in various industries in Central Java, Indonesia and then analyzed and processed using IBM SPSS Statistic software version 24 and Smart PLS 3.0 (Smart Partial Least Square). The sampling technique used in this study was purposive sampling. Data obtained directly from respondents who met the characteristics of the population determined by distributing questionnaires. Based on the test analysis results, it was found that the supplier integration, internal integration, and relationship management to customer variables had a significant positive relationship on operational performance and business performance. It was also observed that operational performance mediated the effect of supplier integration, internal integration, and relationship management to customer on business performance.

A convenient and efficient synthesis of a series of ethyl-1-(6-(4-substitutedacetylatedpiperazin-1-yl)pyrimidin-4-yl)-5-amino-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxylate (8a-8j) has been developed by five steps which include activation of a methylene group, hydrazinolysis, cyclisation and chloro-amine coupling reactions. Moreover, our proposed mechanism was confirmed in this study demonstrating that ethyl 5-amino-1-(6-chloropyrimidin-4-yl)-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxylate is the key intermediate to fulfill the desired outcomes. In silico and in vitro studies were carried out to identify the active agents among the developed adducts against mycobacterium tuberculosis (PDB ID:4TRO). Compound 8a (Docking Score: -26.81 and MIC: 1.6 ug/mL) was found to be the most potent among the synthesized molecules. All the synthesized compounds showed acceptable drug-like properties which make them suitable for further lead modification using in silico design approaches.

The speed of progress in information technology has evolved continuously and has changed the way entrepreneurship is carried out in running its business. The rapidity of internet users also influences economic development indicated by the shifting of the idea of buying and selling transactions which previously emphasized face to face, now it is more comfortable and done without face to face or known online. This study aims to provide an overview and examine the use of social commerce, the uniqueness of resource capabilities and competitive advantage in influencing the business performance of MSMEs in Jambi Province. The study also explores the competitive advantage of mediating social commerce and the uniqueness of resource capacity to the business performance of MSMEs in Jambi Province. This research was conducted in three districts in the Jambi Province, namely Jambi city, Tanjung Jabung Barat district, and Sungaipenuh city. The research method used is quantitative research and verification with Smart PLS application version 3.0. The unit of analysis of this study is MSMEs with an observation unit that is the manager of MSMEs businesses in the three locations of research objects. The number of respondents used was 150 selected MSMEs business units from two cities and one district, namely Jambi city, Sungai Penuh city, and Tanjung Jabung Barat District, representing Jambi Province. The results show that social commerce had a significant influence on competitive advantage. Still, on the other hand, it shows that the uniqueness of resource capabilities did not have any substantial impact on competitive advantage. Social commerce did not have any significant effect on the business performance of MSMEs in Jambi Province, as well as the uniqueness of resource capabilities, apparently not significantly influenced the business performance of MSMEs in Jambi Province. On the contrary, competitive advantage can control MSMEs Business performance in Jambi Province. However, the model of social commerce utilization and the uniqueness of resource capabilities affect the business performance of MSMEs in Jambi Province, mediated by competitive advantage.

The study aimed at exploring the impact of three smart innovative solutions, i.e., Internet-of-Things, Big Data Analytics, and Cloud Computing on supply chain performance. Collecting data by questionnaires administered to a sample consists of supply chain managers of industrial firms. The results pointed out that these three smart solutions significantly and positively lift firms’ supply chain performance. That is, the hypotheses that Internet-of-Things, Big Data Analytics, and Cloud Computing have significant impacts on supply chain performance were supported. Therefore, the study concluded that for industrial firms to improve supply chain performance, such smart solutions should be assessed and applied. The study contributes to both academics and practitioners through providing empirical results on concurrent impacts of three advanced technologies in supply chain management context.

The increasing demand for good and improved polymeric composites has led to a surge in the number of researches on hybrid composites, strengthened and enforced with the natural fibres. This paper mainly analyses and presents the attributes of hybrid composites made from natural fibres and carbon nano-tube (CNT) nanoparticles. A novel hybrid composite considered in this research includes kenaf and coir fibres with CNT nanoparticles embedded in an epoxy matrix. The proposed hybrid nanocomposite’s elastic features are calculated by using different analytical models like Chamis, Mori-Tanaka, Nielson elastic models etc and also with the help of Representative Volume Element Analysis (RVE). The content of fibre volume is varied in four different samples and it is found that upon varying the content of fibre volume, the mechanical properties like longitudinal modulus and transverse modulus got affected. The results evaluated from different analytical models are observed to be in good agreement with each other and also with the results of RVE analysis.