Nowadays, process optimization has been an interest in engineering design for improving the performance and reducing cost. In practice, in addition to uncertainty or noise parameters, a comprehensive optimization model must be able to attend other circumstances which might be imposed in problems under real operational conditions such as dynamic objectives, multi-responses, various probabilistic distribution, discrete and continuous data, physical constraints to design parameters, performance cost, computational complexity and multi-process environment. The main goal of this paper is to give a general overview on topics with brief systematic review and concise discussions about the recent development on comprehensive robust design optimization methods under hybrid aforesaid circumstances. Both optimization methods of mathematical programming based on Taguchi approach and robust optimization based on scenario sets are briefly described. Metamodels hybrid robust design is discussed as an appropriate methodology to decrease computational complexity in problems under uncertainty. In this context, the authors’ policy is to choose important topics for giving a systematic picture to those who wish to be more familiar with recent studies about robust design optimization hybrid metamodels, also by attending real circumstances in practice. In particular, production and project management are considered as two important methodologies that could be improved by applications of advanced robust design combining with metamodel methods.

This study examines the impact of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions on the apparel industry's export performance. EO considers as innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking dimensions. The determinants of export performance are firms' financial, strategic, and satisfaction levels of performance. A cross-sectional survey is carried out by providing a questionnaire to high-level managers and owners of the MLEs. Primary data of 339 treated by partial least squares (PLS-SEM) technique examines EO dimensions' impact on export performance. The findings of this study revealed that innovativeness and proactiveness positively and significantly impact export performance. However, risk-taking dimension does not affect export performance.

A constant concern of academic institutions has been to improve the customer satisfaction in university libraries. The service quality within academic library context is pivotal for satisfying customers by meeting the customers’ needs to create loyalty amongst customers. This research uses LibQual to analyze the gap between customer’s perception and expectation, concerned with the services at the University Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) Library. There are six dimensions in service quality; namely general services, search for materials, library collection, staff, environment and environment, considered for this empirical research. The purpose of this paper is to 1) know service quality dimensions that satisfy the customers and 2) to observe the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction. The research methodology is carried out using a questionnaire survey distributed among 170 samples through simple random sampling. The data obtained was analyzed by using covariance-based structural equation modeling and importance-performance analysis. The results suggest that quality of service had a significant impact on customer satisfaction. Among the service quality dimensions, library environment and general service were viewed as high importance and strong performance index. Implication for research and practice resulting from these findings were also discussed.

The rule based categorization approaches such as associative classification have the capability to produce classifiers rival to those learned by traditional categorization approaches such as Naïve Bayes and K-nearest Neighbor. However, the lack of useful discovery and usage of categorization rules are the major challenges of rule based approaches and their performance is declined with large set of rules. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is effective to reduce the high dimensionality and improve categorization performance. However, the usage of GA in most researches is limited in the categorization preprocessing stage and its results is used to simplify the categorization process performed by other categorization algorithms. This paper proposed a hybrid GA rule based categorization method, named genetic algorithm rule based categorization (GARC), to enhance the accuracy of categorization rules and to produce accurate classifier for text mining. The GARC consists of three main stages; namely, search space determination, rule discovery with validation (rule generation), and categorization. The experimental results are carried out on three Arabic text datasets with multiple categories to evaluate the efficiency of GARC. The results show that a promising performance was achieved by using GARC for Arabic text categorization. The GARC achieves the best performance with small feature space in most situations.

Clustering is one of the most common unsupervised data mining classification techniques for splitting objects into a set of meaningful groups. However, the traditional k-means algorithm is not applicable to retrieve useful information / clusters, particularly when there is an overwhelming growth of multidimensional data. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a new strategy to determine the optimal number of clusters. To improve the clustering task on high dimensional data sets, the distance based k-means algorithm is proposed. The proposed algorithm is tested using eighteen sets of normal and non-normal multivariate simulation data under various combinations. Evidence gathered from the simulation reveal that the proposed algorithm is capable of identifying the exact number of clusters.

Although the relationship between resilience and career success has been well documented, very few studies relate these variables in developing economies, and especially in entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Additionally, how commitment actually shapes this relationship is conspicuously neglected. This empirical investigation was aimed at examining the influence of entrepreneurial career resilience on the three facets of entrepreneurial career success, i.e. career satisfaction, perceived career achievement and perceived financial attainment through the mediating role of entrepreneurial career commitment. The study used cross sectional data approach to collect data from 390 active entrepre-neurs. The participants were selected using purposive sampling technique. PLS-SEM statistical software (Smart-PLS 3) was used to test the formulated hypotheses. The findings suggested that; entrepreneurial career resilience was a positive predictor of the career satisfaction and perceived ca-reer achievement but it did not predict perceived financial attainment; that, entrepreneurial career resilience predicted entrepreneurial career commitment; that, entrepreneurial career commitment predicted career satisfaction, perceived career achievement and perceived financial attainment. Moreover, entrepreneurial career commitment significantly influenced the relationships of entrepreneurial career resilience and the two facets of entrepreneurial career success.

The numerical simulation of fatigue behavior of the Aluminum 7075-T6 cantilever beam with an angular crack has been investigated. Cracks are located separately in three different positions of the investigated beam. To predict the fatigue behavior of the cantilever beam the crack propagation was manually simulated. Compression load is applied in different stress ratios between zero and one; then, the obtained numerical results of this research are compared with the experimental results. It is observed that increasing the stress ratio increases the percentage of the fatigue life of the sample significantly. Ascending growth of fatigue life is slow and more severe by increasing of the stress ratio for the first and the third position, respectively. By increasing the stress ratio, the rate of deviation of the crack decreases and it converges to 0° in parallel to the width of the beam. This result is also observed with an increase in the distance from the support of beam. Furthermore, it is also revealed that by the increase in the initial length of the crack, the fatigue life initially reduces with smaller ratios. However, along the larger cracks, the decreasing ratio of fatigue life increases significantly.

The organizational performance at public hospitals differs from the corporate sector and faces maladministration. Further, performance at public hospitals is crucial as it directly affects human lives and endeavors for accessibility to medicines and equipment. This research is designed to determine the mediating role of inventory control practices in proficiency and organizational performance at public hospitals. This paper uses a quantitative research with a survey method using multistage cluster sampling which was performed on a sample size of 200. Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis validated the model for Structural Equation Modeling. The findings of this research indicate a significant positive effect and full mediation of inventory control practices between the study variables. Further, the significance indicated that competent and well-trained staff manages inventory efficiently for improved organizational performance through better service quality and reduced cost. An integrated second-order model of this research will benefit the public hospitals, healthcare industry at large, organizations managing mega structured inventory, and to the body of knowledge.

In this paper, economic analysis on the effect of polyester fibers with high strength on the behavior of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) is performed. The results indicate that strength is increased by adding fiber to asphalt. Also, unit weight of asphalt mixture was used as a variable parameter in the analyses. The results show that in some certain percentages of fiber, in addition to the enhancement in mechanical properties of HMA mixture the economic benefit value becomes more than the cost and therefore adding polyester fibers with high stability is suggested for the mixture of modified asphalt concrete. Finally, it can be concluded that adding fibers in values of 0.2% to 0.5% has the best result on the asphalt mixture, which because of high resistance and economic aspects makes it more efficient to be used in the highways of warm regions containing traffic.

Resilience is one of the constructs which received less attention in the contemporary entrepreneurial literature. This paper explored the relationships among social capital, commitment and career resilience of entrepreneurs in Northern Nigeria. 576 active entrepreneurs were selected to participate in this study using cluster sampling approach and were served with questionnaires of which 390, representing 68% response, were retrieved. The data were analyzed using Smart-PLS 3 software of Partial Lease Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings suggest that bonding social capital influenced both career commitment as well as career resilience, but bridging did not. In addition, career commitment mediated the relationship between bonding social capital and career resilience, but did not mediate the relationship between bridging social capital and career resilience. Theoretical, practical and methodological implications were also provided.