With increasing economic instability coupled with climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic the subject of economic resilience in agripreneurship value chains in rural farming has gained prominence. Despite the constant engagements on the subject, there still is a missing piece on the determinants of economic resilience and sustainability for agripreneurship in tobacco value chains. The objective of this study was to characterize rural farming typologies which will assist in determining resilience and sustainability for tobacco value chains. The research adopted a pragmatic research approach, where quantitative results were triangulated with qualitative results to test the robustness of the research findings. A total of 250 questionnaires were administered to small scale tobacco farmers in Gokwe and interviews were held with selected 8 Agri-tex-officers. STATA version 12 was used to analyse quantitative data and thematic analysis using vignettes for qualitative data. The research findings showed a significant positive relationship between sustainable agripreneurship and economic resilience in tobacco farming in Gokwe district. The study recommends that the government prioritise the development of sustainable tobacco infrastructure throughout the value chain and training of tobacco farmers on resilient farming methods. This study offers theoretical contributions on how to achieve economic resilience and sustainable agripreneurship in tobacco value chains in Gokwe district.

Co-op advertising is an interactive relationship between manufacturer and retailer(s) supply chain and makes up the majority of marketing budget in many product lines for manufacturers and retailers. This paper considers pricing and co-op advertising decisions in two-stage supply chain and develops a monopolistic retailer and duopolistic retailer & apos; s model. In these models, the manufacturer and the retailers play the Nash, Manufacturer-Stackelberg and cooperative game to make optimal pricing and co-op advertising decisions. A bargaining model is utilized for determine the best pricing and co-op advertising scheme for achieving full coordination in the supply chain.

The article simulates the impact of the digital technologies’ development on economic growth, which makes it possible to find ways to improve the quality of various spheres of life and identify areas of the economy, the accelerated digitalization of which will ensure an increase in gross domestic product (GDP). The research used groupings of economic activities that directly influence the development of the digital economy. Using the data of regression models, the coefficients of GDP elasticity from the development of the studied sectors were calculated and used to forecast GDP under the development influence of the studied sectors while maintaining the existing trends. The dynamics of the e-commerce market development in Ukraine, the dynamics of production volumes of products (services) of the main types of economic activities in the field of digital transformation of the economy in Ukraine, the dynamics of financial results of enterprises in the information and telecommunications sector in Ukraine, the dynamics of capital investments in the field of information and communications of Ukraine, the dynamics of foreign investment in the development of the type of economic activity “information and telecommunications” in Ukraine, the dynamics of the development of the main areas of digitalization of the Ukrainian economy in 2010-2018 and the dynamics of GDP in actual prices were revealed. A correlation and regression analysis of the impact of the main indicators of the digital technologies sectors development on Ukraine's GDP is also carried out. The forecast extrapolation trend of production growth volumes of products and services in the information sector of Ukraine was built. A forecast of GDP growth in Ukraine has been constructed, taking into account the processes of digitalization of the economy in accordance with certain trends. The forecast dynamics of changes in GDP under the influence of the IT sector development until 2023 was also illustrated. It was found that Ukraine lags significantly behind most developed countries in terms of the level of industrial production development of information and communication technologies and equipment, Ukraine is completely import-dependent in this area. It has been proved that stimulating the development of information and communication technologies has significant prospects for activating digitalization processes in all spheres of the economy and society and increasing GDP.

The Health Care system is changing from the hospitalization to the home care, and the World Health Organization has announced that the rate of care-dependent elderly people in Europe will considerably increase within the next decades. Thus, scientific planning for this area is an essential factor to improve the community health. This paper aims to develop a mathematical modeling for Home Health Care Routing and Scheduling Problem and to solve it by means of Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm considering real condition (staff vehicle traveling, conditions of patients and so forth). We permit interdependent services for patients in which they can order as many services as they want with any relation between them (Multiple Services) and supposed time window for each service. The mathematical formulation of the problem is coded in GMAS software, which is a well-known commercial software for solving optimization problems. In addition, for large-scale problems where GAMS is unable to solve, SA algorithm is applied to tackle the problems. Finally, sensitivity analysis on the most important parameters (number of services and number of patients with interdependent Multiple services) are conducted. The results reveal that when each patient can order infinite services with any relation between them, complexity of the problem increases, but SA algorithm can solve large instances with reasonable solution in the less computational time. Thus, SA algorithm shows a rational performance for large instances. Moreover, the most important factors that affect the objective value and the run time of the problems are number of patients, and number of patients with interdependent multiple services.

In this paper we develop an inventory model for deteriorating items with price sensitive demand. Generally the vendor offers a cash discount or fix time period to the retailer to pay all the dues. According to the availability of money the retailer chooses his/her option. In this paper we discuss the possible cases of permissible delay and cash discount. The shortages are allowed in this model and are partially backlogged. Holding cost is considered as varying function of time, which reflects a more realistic concept. The purpose of this study is to optimize the overall cost of the system and to compute optimal ordering quantity. Numerical examples for different cases are also presented to illustrate the study. A sensitivity analysis with regard to distinct associated parameters is shown to make sure the constancy of the model.

This paper describes a harmless HPLC technique for detecting imidacloprid (ICP) and its metabolite, 6-chloronicotinic acid (6CA), using an isocratic 100 % water mobile phase. Chromatographic separations were performed a Daisopak® SP-200-3-C1-P with water mobile phase and a photodiode-array detector. The total run time was & LT; 6 min. The system suitability was well within the international acceptance criteria. The detection limits were 0.018 ?g/ml for ICP and 0.005 ?g/ml for 6CA, respectively. A harmless HPLC method for simultaneous detecting ICP and 6CA was developed and may be further applied to the quantification in animal-derived foods.

This paper concentrates on the evaluation of reliability measures of a computer system of two-identical units having independent failure of h/w and s/w components. Initially one unit is operative and the other is kept as spare in cold standby. There is a single server visiting the system immediately whenever needed. The server conducts preventive maintenance of the unit after a maximum operation time. If server is unable to repair the h/w components in maximum repair time, then components in the unit are replaced immediately by new one. However, only replacement of the s/w components has been made at their failure. The priority is given to the preventive maintenance over repair activities of the h/w. The time to failure of the components follows negative exponential distribution whereas the distribution of preventive maintenance, repair and replacement time are taken as arbitrary. The expressions for some important reliability measures of system effectiveness have been derived using semi-Markov process and regenerative point technique. The graphical behavior of the results has also been shown for a particular case.

Making rational decisions in times of uncertainty is an important capability required of marketing managers. However, choosing the precise quantitative decision-making technique or a combination of such tools usually presents managers with a score of challenges. To lessen this challenge, this single case research demonstrates how the choice of three Bayesian decision models (Laplace criterion, Savage minimax regret, and Hurwicz coefficient of realization) can reduce uncertainty in content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and referral marketing decision. We employed the case study approach to enable direct access to the decision-making process of the case organization, and to collect relevant data relating to the three marketing decision variables. Results show that, although the Laplace criterion may not have a direct effect on content marketing decisions, it influences the decision-making process leading to the creation and promotion of content. The Savage minimax regret had a direct bearing on SEO decision-making. Hurwicz's coefficient of realization yielded no direct impact on referral marketing but shows the possibility of influencing decision-making processes that led to the development and implementation of referral marketing campaigns. The implications are discussed.

This paper presents an overview on recent studies on the role of gender in corporate governance. We study the recent works on the relationship between gender and firms’ financial performance as well as the relationship between gender and firms’ interest in global warming. According to our survey, it appears that firms with the presence of females had more concerns on green gas effects than other male oriented corporations did. Moreover, according to our survey, when a female member joins the board of directors, most investors consider this as a positive signal for profitability. In other words, it appears that the presence of female contributes to firm’s financial performance.

Different criteria are available in the literature to assess the fracture behaviour of sharp V-notches. A typical and well-known criterion is based on the application of the notch stress intensity factors (NSIFs), which are able to quantify the intensity of the stress fields ahead of the notch tip. This work considers two recent energy-based criteria applied here to sharp V-notches. The first criterion is based on the averaged value of the strain energy density (SED), while the second one called Finite Fracture Mechanics (FFM) criterion is available under two different formulations: that by Leguillon et al. and that by Carpinteri et al. Considering the averaged SED criterion, a new expression for estimating the control radius Rc under pure Mode II loading is proposed and compared with the sound expression valid under pure Mode I loading. With reference to pure Mode II loading the critical NSIF at failure can be expressed as a function of the V-notch opening angle. By adopting the three criteria considered here the expressions for the NSIFs are derived and compared. After all, the approaches are employed considering sharp V-notched brittle components under in-plane shear loading, in order to investigate the capability of each approach for the fracture assessment. With this aim a bulk of experimental data taken from the literature is used for the comparison.