Most small and medium scale enterprises in Ghana neglect very critical performance indicators in their bossiness. As a result most SMEs do not survive till their fifth anniversary. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between prevention focus, promotion focus, resilience, and SME performance in Ghana. Furthermore, we investigated the moderation effect of entrepreneurial learning and Entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between entrepreneurial resilience and SME performance in Ghana. Our results show that both promotion- and prevention-focused increase entrepreneurial resilience and SME performance significantly. This is an indication that there is a strong positive correlation between entrepreneurial resilience and success in both the individual and firm levels. This inference can therefore assist policy makers, politicians and various industry players in designing training programs on how to improve the resilience of SME owners in Ghana. Statistically our analysis shows that prevention focus (PreV) has a positive effect on entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) (β = 0.250; p<0.001), and promotion focus (PreM) has a positive effect on entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) (β = 0.268; p<0.001). Additionally, entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) has a positive effect on innovative performance (IP) (β = 0.547; p<0.001). Furthermore, the mediation results has shown that entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) mediates the relationship between prevention focus (PreV) and innovative performance (IP) (β = 0.136; p<0.001); as well as that of promotion focus (PreM) and firm performance (IP) (β = 0.146; p<0.001). Finally, the results with regards to moderation effects has shown that entrepreneurial orientation (EntO) partially moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) and innovative performance (IP) (β = 0.109; p<0.05), however, the result established that entrepreneurial learning (EntL) does not moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial resilience (EntR) and firm performance (IP) (β = -0.031; p<0.05). Using the Resource Based View theory, we concluded that, SME’s needs to adopted prevention (vigilant/avoidant strategies) by minimizing losses, and taking calculated risks with motivation from mentors to avoid loss as this would achieve resilience as well as promotion of strategies (eager/approach strategies) to achieve gains for their SMEs during economic disruption and economic downturn such as COVID-19. We concluded that SME’s could also achieve resilience when managers or owners of SMEs inspire the employees to work harder, and think outside the box to identify latent ideas and opportunities within their SME business environment.

The management of recycling and remanufacturing supply chains, which can help enterprises achieve low pollution, low energy consumption and sustainable development, has become a new strategy of modern enterprises. The factors of supply chain and government mechanisms will have an impact on enterprise decisions for recycling, remanufacturing and social welfare. In order to promote the sustainable operation of the supply chain, considering the coordination role of government mechanisms and supply chain, a recycling and remanufacturing supply chain model composed of a manufacturer, retailer and recycler is constructed. This paper discusses the pricing decision of new/remanufactured products, supply chain performance level, such as remanufacturing effort, publicity service efforts and profit, and social welfare in five models of three situations: centralized situation, including non-government mechanisms and non-supply chain coordination; manufacturer-led situation, including non-government mechanisms and non-supply chain coordination, government mechanisms and non-supply chain coordination, government mechanisms and supply chain coordination; government-led situation, including government mechanisms and non-supply chain coordination. It is found that under manufacturer-led situations, the government subsidy and bonus-penalty mechanisms can encourage manufacturer and retailer to actively participate in the recycling and remanufacturing activities. The supply chain coordination contract can further enhance the role of the consumer market and promote the implementation of government mechanisms. Manufacturer adopts a cost-sharing contract to encourage recyclers to carry out recycling activities. Under certain conditions, the contract can effectively improve the benefits and social welfare. The research conclusions have important theoretical and practical application value for the coordination and cooperation among enterprises in the supply chain and the formulation of government mechanisms.

Managing blood inventory is challenging due to the perishable and unstable nature of the product needed for transfusions in healthcare facilities. In this paper, we consider a periodic review blood inventory model with two priority demand classes, namely emergency and regular patients. We propose a dynamic programming model for determining the optimal ordering policy at the hospital given the uncertainty regarding received donated blood units. The optimal policy deals with placing orders for blood units that will expire within a fixed period. The objective is to minimize total expected costs within a planning horizon while maintaining a specified expected service level. Our model considers uncertain demands and donated blood units with discrete probability following known distributions. A tabu search algorithm is developed for large-scale problems. The performance of these ordering policies is compared against the optimal fixed order quantity and the order up-to-level policies using real-life data. The numerical results show the benefit of our model over the optimal fixed order quantity and the order up-to-level policies. We measure the total expected cost and the expected service level obtained from the optimal and near-optimal policies and provide a sensitivity analysis on parameters of interest.

This paper addresses the permutation flowshop scheduling problem with peak power consumption constraints (PFSPP). The real-time power consumption of the PFSPP cannot exceed a given peak power at any time. First, a mathematical model is established to describe the concerned problem. The sequence of operations is taken as a solution and the characteristics of solutions are analyzed. Based on the problem characteristics, eight heuristics are proposed, including balanced machine-job decoding method, balanced machine-job insert method, balanced job-machine insert method, balanced machine-job group insert method, balanced job-machine group insert method, greedy algorithm, beam search algorithm, and improved beam search algorithm. Similarly, the canonical artificial bee colony algorithm and iterated local search algorithm are modified based on the problem characteristics to solve the PFSPP. A large number of experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance of new proposed heuristics and metaheuristics. The results and discussion show that the proposed heuristics and metaheuristics perform well in solving the PFSPP.

Due to highly functionalized molecular structure, furfural has made a huge impact in renewable platforms. As there is a big need of producing renewable sources, this review reveals several attempts made by researchers distributed in every nook and corner of the world to produce furfural-based derivatives. As furfurals are converted to various forms, they reflect many applications both with respect to economy and environment friendly approach. In this review, a summarized detail of various reactions of furfural substrates are provided which includes Diels-Alder reactions, Oxidations, Hydrogenations, Hydrogenolysis, Conversions to C6 Carboxylic acids, Furfuryl amines, Cyclopentenones and other useful compounds. These compounds and their applications in various fields are mentioned systematically. The chemical as well as biocatalytic conversions are explained in detail which will help to know the future challenges and hurdles when design and optimization of furfural derivatives are concerned.

With the rapid development of the courier industry, customers are placing higher demands on the cost and delivery time of courier services. Therefore, this paper focuses on the bi-objective express transportation network design problem (BO-ETNDP) to minimize the operation cost and maximum arrival time. A multi-structure parallel design methodology (MS-PDM) is proposed to solve the BO-ETNDP. In this methodology, all topological structures commonly used in designing transportation networks are sorted out. For each topological structure, a novel bi-objective nonlinear mixed-integer optimization model for BO-ETNDP is developed considering the impact of the hub’s sorting efficiency on the operation cost and arrival time. To solve these models, a preference-based multi-objective algorithm (PB-MOA) is devised, which embeds the branch-and-cut algorithm and Pareto dominance theory in the framework of this ranking algorithm. In the case study, the applicability of the proposed methodology is verified in a real-world leading express company. The results show that our methodology can effectively avoid the limitation of solving the BO-ETNDP with a specific structure. Besides, the suitable topology for designing express transportation networks in different scenarios are explored through the sensitivity analysis.

Antioxidant activity of a series of previously described 5-amino-N-(iododi(per)fluoroalkyl)-1H-1,2,3-triazole-4-carboxamides 3a-r, their synthetic precursors 5-amino-N-allyl-1,2,3-triazole-4-carboxamides 1a-g, and their deamination products N-(3-di(per)fluoroalkyl-2-iodo-n-propyl)-1,2,3-triazole-4-carboxamides 4a-e was investigated in vitro using DPPH test and ascorbic acid as a standard reference. It was established that compounds 3a-r inhibit DPPH free radicals in moderate to high values (50.9–97.6%). The effect of substituents in the position 1 of the 1,2,3-triazole nucleus, fluoroalkyl groups and amino groups on the level of antioxidant activity was studied in detail. Reactivity and electrostatic surface potential were evaluated for the most active carboxamides 3a,g,r using the DFT method, and molecular docking was studied in the NADPH oxidase protein model.

The correlation between coefficients from Dimroth equations and descriptors of global electron density transfer was explored based on the data available in the recent literature. We established that the obtained results should be very usable for the interpretation of the organic reactivity and molecular mechanisms.

Among the well-known scheduling problems, the customer order scheduling problem (COSP) has always been of great importance in manufacturing. To reflect the reality of COSPs as much as possible, this study considers that jobs from different orders are classified in various classes. This paper addresses a tri-criteria single-machine scheduling model with multiple job classes and customer orders on which the measurement minimizes a linear combination of the sum of the ranges of all orders, the tardiness of all orders, and the total completion times of all jobs. Due to the NP-hard complexity of the problem, a lower bound and a property are developed and utilized in a branch-and-bound for solving an exact solution. Afterward, four heuristics with three local improved searching methods each and a water wave optimality algorithm with four variants of wavelengths are proposed. The tested outputs report the performances of the proposed methods.

Continuing the search for new antimicrobial agents with antibiofilm activity, bis-quaternary ammonium compounds based on natural (3,5-dibromo-4-hydroxyphenyl)acetic acid derivatives were synthesized. Antibacterial and antibiofilm activity of ammonium salts was evaluated in vitro against S. aureus, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa, including antibiotic-resistant strains. Bis-quaternary ammonium salts 1, 5, and 6 showed antibacterial activity with MIC values ranging from 25.0 to 200.0 μg/mL. Notably, these compounds demonstrated a high level of antibiofilm activity. Ammonium salts 1 and 6 reduced biofilm formation against S. aureus ATCC 25923, P. aeruginosa PA01, E. coli ATCC 25922, and antibiotic-resistant P. aeruginosa by 92 - 97% at a concentration of 100.0 μg/mL. In addition, compounds 1 and 6 inhibited the biofilm formation of antibiotic-resistant E. coli isolate by 60% and 63%, respectively.