The machinability of a material can be defined as the ease with which it can be machined. Materials with good machinability property require less power to cut, can be cut quickly, and easily obtain a good finish without wearing the tooling much. Therefore, to manufacture components economically, production engineers are challenged to discover ways to determine machinability of materials which mainly depends on their mechanical properties, as well as on other cutting conditions. In this paper, the machinability characteristics of alloys of three materials, i.e. aluminium, copper and steel are studied applying grey TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) method. For each case, eight different alloys are considered whose machinability is evaluated based on different mechanical properties which are expressed in grey numbers. Using the adopted methodology, it now becomes easier for the manufacturers to select a particular alloy that can be easily machined. It is observed that A357RC, CuCr1Zr and AISI 5140 are the best machinable aluminium, copper and steel alloys, respectively. It is also found that the ranking performance of grey TOPSIS method remains unaffected with the variation in greyness of the considered mechanical property values.

Piroxicam (POC) and oxfendazole (OFA) are two widely used veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and anthelmintic medicines, respectively. Simple, precise and accurate and cost-effective methods for the determination of POC and OFZ in bulk drug and in its dosage forms have been developed and validated. The methods are based on the potentiometric titration of compound with acetous perchloric acid in glacial acetic acid medium using modified glass-saturated calomel electrode system. The methods are applicable over the ranges 1.5 - 15 mg and 7.5-15 mg, for POC and OFA, respectively. The proposed methods were successfully applied to the determination of active substances in their pharmaceutical dosage forms. A statistical comparison was made on the results of proposed methods with those obtained for reference method. The intra-day and inter-day precision and accuracy values obtained were satisfactory with RSD and RE values less than 3%. Excipients in tablets did not interfere to the assay as shown by the recovery study via standard addition technique with mean percentage recoveries in the range 97.8 – 100.6%.

This study examines the role of gender on entrepreneurial marketing (EM) and Bangladeshi Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) performance relationship. A self-administered questionnaire was conducted. A total of 220 owners of SMEs in Bangladesh were selected randomly as respondents from the list of active SMEs in Dhaka and Narayanganj city. The data were analyzed by using SEM-AMOS package 25.0. This study finds that there was a significant and direct effect of entrepreneurial marketing on firm performance. In addition, there was a significant effect of gender as a moderating variable in this relationship. At the corporate level, this study provides insights for the SMEs in making decisions related to gender and firm performance. The implications of the above findings are discussed.

Over the past time, the dramatic growth of e-commerce has made Vietnam as one of the most potential markets in ASEAN. Vietnamese businesses as well as consumers are facing great opportunities from the industrial revolution 4.0. However, in addition to those significant developments, e-commerce in Vietnam also faces many challenges and barriers. Therefore, this research gives an overview of the current situation of e-commerce development and recommendations based on the findings of significant effect generating from PESTLE issues to further development of the online trading platforms in Vietnam.

Ductile failure is investigated experimentally and theoretically in U-notched Al 7075- T6 thin sheets under mixed mode I/II loading. First, several U-notched rectangular sheets are subjected to mixed mode I/II failure tests and the load-carrying capacity of the sheets are experimentally recorded. Then, the Equivalent Material Concept (EMC) is employed in conjunction with the U-notch maximum tangential stress (UMTS) and U-notch mean stress (UMS) criteria to theoretically estimate the load-carrying capacity of the U-notched Al 7075-T6 sheets. It is shown that the experimental failure loads are well predicted by means of both the UMTS-EMC and UMS-EMC criteria. Moreover, the experimental observations and the elastic-plastic finite element analyses indicate that the U-notched aluminum sheets fail by the large-scale yielding (LSY) regime.

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a decision making tool based on linear programming for measuring the relative efficiency of a set of comparable units. DEA helps us identify the sources and level of inefficiency for each of the inputs and outputs. This approach has been used to evaluate the efficiency of the safety department in five construction companies. A three-input, safety workforce, safety training, and safety budget, and two-output, Perfect days and Uptime, constant returns-to-scale (CRS) model was developed. The model indicated the necessary improvements required in the inefficient unit’s inputs and outputs to make it efficient, by identifying what factor is responsible for the low efficiency of performance, and also what factor should be improved in order to improve the efficiency of the safety department. The result shows that the safety department of firm A, B and D are efficient, but Firm C and Firm E can improve their efficiency by reducing inputs up to 3.34% and 6.05%, respectively. The inputs identified for reduction were; number of safety staffs and safety budget for Firm C and E respectively.

The uprising of blockchain technology has recently become a trend owing to its prowess to reform the governance of supply chains, offering improved levels of data transparency, traceability, and efficient workflow. The objective drawn on this research is to examine the key determinants that impact the adoption as well as applicability of blockchain technology within the supply chain management context. The Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) model is tested in this study to inspect and fathom the complex relationships between these components, thereby uncovering their respective significance and interrelationships. The results derived from this study contribute vital insights into the ever-changing landscape of blockchain adoption, with a particular focus on key factors comprising technical competencies, IT infrastructure, interoperability, compatibility, and complexity. The research based on DEMATEL methodology reveals both direct and indirect influences, facilitating a more comprehensive comprehension of these crucial variables. This study is an invaluable resource for industry stakeholders, policymakers, and organizations seeking to embrace blockchain technology into supply chain operations. This study’s original intent is to frame an extensive analysis of the key aspects and their interrelationships, offering valuable insights for making well-informed decisions. The overarching aim is to facilitate the seamless assimilation of blockchain architecture into supply chain management systems, promoting effectiveness along with harmony.

The resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) is a well-known and widely studied topic. The underlying problem assumes that non-preemptions and that constant resources are restrictions imposed on project activities, which are to be scheduled, subject to precedence relation and limited resource constraints. Project activities, in RCPSP, are classified under category A. The problem is expanded to include various other activity assumptions categories, such as B and C. In the Preemptive-RCPSP, project activities are classified under category B, which refers to the activity that can be implemented using constant resources and constant durations. In the Flexible-RCPSP, project activities are classified under category C, which refers to the activities that can be executed using flexible resources over flexible durations, and preemptions are not allowed. However, in One-of-a-Kind Production companies (OKP), such as the housing industry, plastic injection moldings, and RV manufacturing, all known as “manufactured-to-order” operations, the activities are classified under category D in addition to A, B, and C, simultaneously. Category D refers to the activities that can be executed using flexible durations and flexible resources, and preemptions are allowed. In this paper, therefore, we present a new effective model in order to deal with the projects that consist of all the previous activity assumptions simultaneously to generate feasible project schedules. Case studies are included, and the results show that the resources usage is increased and the project makespan is reduced.

Electrochemical micromachining (EMM) appears to be a very promising micromachining process for having higher machining rate, better precision and control, reliability, flexibility, environmental acceptability, and capability of machining a wide range of materials. It permits machining of chemically resistant materials, like titanium, copper alloys, super alloys and stainless steel to be used in biomedical, electronic, micro-electromechanical system and nano-electromechanical system applications. Therefore, the optimal use of an EMM process for achieving enhanced machining rate and improved profile accuracy demands selection of its various machining parameters. Various optimization tools, primarily Derringer’s desirability function approach have been employed by the past researchers for deriving the best parametric settings of EMM processes, which inherently lead to sub-optimal or near optimal solutions. In this paper, an attempt is made to apply an almost new optimization tool, i.e. differential search algorithm (DSA) for parametric optimization of three EMM processes. A comparative study of optimization performance between DSA, genetic algorithm and desirability function approach proves the wide acceptability of DSA as a global optimization tool.

This research aims to investigate the impact of adopting e-learning in an attempt to enhance higher thinking skills among students at the University of Jordan. In addition, we examine the relationship between e-learning and higher thinking skills and identify the effect of e-learning on higher thinking skills at the University of Jordan. The study examines the effect of using e-learning effectiveness and its effect on developing higher students’ thinking skills at the university level. The study also focuses on intellectual education for high-level thinking and the impact of the e-learning environment on a group of students at the University of Jordan. The target community for this study is undergraduate students at the University of Jordan, in Amman, Jordan. The resulted sample consists of 45 students. During the experiment, two research tools were used to analyze the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The quantitative data are collected from the students’ perception analyzed using some statistical tests. The results of the research indicate that students could be helped to enhance higher-order thinking skills and maybe enriched by integrating an e-learning model into teaching and learning. There is also a positive relationship between e-learning and higher thinking skills at the University of Jordan. The experimental results of this study indicate several results, as the adoption of the e-learning model led to a significant improvement in the higher thinking skills of students. The e-learning model can remove many social and cultural barriers.