Supply Chain Agility and Internal and External Process Connectivity: The Impact of Supply and Product Complexity

The study attempts to analyze the impact of internal and external process connectivity on supply chain agility of manufacturing firms in Thailand. It also examines whether supply and product complexity moderates the impact of internal and external process connectivity on supply chain agility. The study relies on the questionnaire survey to collect the data. Using electronic survey, the respondents working in manager’ positions in Thailand’s manufacturing companies are targeted. Out of 250 survey questionnaires, only 173 responses were found usable with a rate of response of 57.2%. The study focuses on Thai firms because Thai manufacturing sector is one of the strongest players in the globe. The reason to select manufacturing firms is that the manufacturing firms are considered to be very crucial in global supply chains in terms of providing agility and responsiveness while delivering final products to the consumers. Supply chain agility (SCAG) is used as dependent while internal process connectivity (INPC) and external process connectivity (EXPC) are used as independent variables. Moreover, product complexity (PRCX) and supply complexity (SPCX) are used as moderating variables. Findings show that SPCX has negatively significant influence on SCAG while PRCX has insignificant effect on SCAG. INPC and EXPC have positive and significant impact on SCAG. The results state that both INPC and EXPC play vital role in attaining SCAG. The interaction effect of product term (INPC × EXPC) on SCAG is also found to be positively significant. These outcomes are in line with the process theory which states that both INPC and EXPC are significant factor that play important role in attaining SCAG. Both these processes permit companies to better respond to continuous variations

Impact of Corporate Entrepreneurship and Organizational Culture on Business Performance: The Role of Supply Chain Management

With the expanding multifaceted nature and vulnerability of worldwide inventory chains, interruption occasions are as often as possible happening in production network. Commercial condition is separated into two sorts including inner and outer business conditions. In the examination, our inward business condition is organization culture and inside business condition is supply chain performance (SCP). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to quantify the impact of organizational culture (OC), corporate entrepreneurship (CE) and its components on business performance (BP) through SCP in the non-financial sector of Thailand. Research sample comprises of 120 non-financial firms operating in Thailand. The study finds that SCP fully mediates the relationship between work reinforcement BP and time availability and BP. Whereas, SCP is found to have partial mediation in the relationship between CE BP, OC BP, management support BP, organization boundaries BP and reward reinforcement and BP. Findings of study are important for mangers in understanding and implementation of better OC which leads to CE and will ultimately enhance BP

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Features of Common Posterior Fossa Brain Tumors in Children: A Preliminary Vietnamese Study

BACKGROUND: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) nowadays plays an important role in the evaluation of posterior fossa brain tumours in children for appropriate diagnosis, treatment planning, and follow-up. AIM: To assess the MRI features of common posterior fossa brain tumours including medulloblastomas, ependymomas, and pilocytic astrocytomas along with the postoperative parameters to contribute the local knowledge to the neuroradiology and neurosurgery fields. METHODS: The study was performed at Children's Hospital 02 from January 2016 to June 2019. In this study, all pediatric patients adopted MRI to evaluate the posterior fossa brain tumours’ characteristics and then underwent surgery to eradicate the posterior fossa tumours. We retrospectively compared the baseline parameters, MRI parameters, and postoperative parameters among medulloblastomas, ependymomas, and pilocytic astrocytomas. RESULTS: There were 62 patients (27 medulloblastomas, 20 ependymomas, and 15 pilocytic astrocytomas) in this research. The main structure of medulloblastomas and ependymomas was predominantly solid, whereas the main structure of pilocytic astrocytomas was superiorly cystic (p < 0.05). Ependymoma tended to extend tumour through foramina of Luschka and Magendie (p < 0.05). Medulloblastomas chiefly showed iso intensity on T2W and FLAIR images meanwhile ependymomas and pilocytic astrocytomas predominantly appeared hyperintensity on T2W and FLAIR images. Medulloblastomas and ependymomas were mostly high intensity on DWI, and low intensity on ADC whereas pilocytic astrocytomas were usually low intensity on DWI and high intensity on ADC. After injecting CE, pilocytic astrocytomas showed a mixed intensity whereas the signal intensity of medulloblastoma and ependymoma on T1CE was generally strong. There were positive correlations between FH diameter and estimated blood loss (r = 0.289, p < 0.05); and surgical time (r = 0.312, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: MRI plays a crucial role in demonstrating the features of posterior fossa brain tumours for appropriate diagnosis of medulloblastomas, ependymomas, and pilocytic astrocytomas. Medulloblastomas are problematic tumours and the clinicians should also take into consideration in cases of larger feet-to-head diameter of tumours to ensure the efficacy and safety surgery for patients

Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in full vaccination coverage among vietnamese children aged 12–23 months, 2000–2014: Evidence for mitigating disparities in vaccination

There has been no report on the situation of socioeconomic inequalities in the full vaccination coverage among Vietnamese children. This study aims to assess the trends and changes in the socioeconomic inequalities in the full vaccination coverage among Vietnamese children aged 12–23 months from 2000 to 2014. Data were drawn from Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (2000, 2006, 2011, and 2014). Concentration index (CCI) and concentration curve (CC) were applied to quantify the degree of the socioeconomic inequalities in full immunization coverage. The prevalence of children fully receiving recommended vaccines was significantly improved during 2000–2014, yet, was still not being covered. The total CCI of full vaccination coverage gradually decreased from 2000 to 2014 (CCI: from 0.241 to 0.009). The CC increasingly became close to the equality line through the survey period, indicating the increasingly narrow gap in child full immunization amongst the poor and the rich. Vietnam witnessed a sharp decrease in socioeconomic inequality in the full vaccination coverage for over a decade. The next policies towards children from vulnerable populations (ethnic minority groups, living in rural areas, and having a mother with low education) belonging to lower socioeconomic groups may mitigate socioeconomic inequalities in full vaccination coverage. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Huy Nguyen” is provided in this record*

Single-machine Scheduling with Splitable Jobs and Availability Constraints

This paper deals with a single machine scheduling problem with availability constraints. The jobs are splitable and lower bound on the size of each sub-job is imposed. The objective is to find a feasible schedule that minimizes the makespan. The proposed scheduling problem is proved to be NP-hard in the strong sense. Some effective heuristic algorithms are then proposed. Additionally, computational results show that the proposed heuristic performs well

The effect of nocturnal wear of dentures on the sleep quality: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose The effect of nocturnal wear of denture on sleep quality and integrity is still not well understood. Therefore, this systematic review was conducted to provide evidence on this topic. Methods Electronic searches were conducted from 1964 up to September 2015, using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Only publications in English or French, in which sleep quality of edentate adult individuals wearing dentures at night was compared to those not wearing were included in the review. Random effects models were used to pool the effect sizes. Results A total of 10 studies were included in the systematic review and 5 in the meta-analysis. No statistically significant difference between sleeping with denture and without denture was found for the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI; Standard Mean Difference = −0.60, 95 % CI −1.67–0.47; Z = −1.10; p = 0.27). However, there was considerable heterogeneity in the studies included in the meta-analysis (Tau2 = 1.34; Q-value = 59.32, df = 4 (P < 0.0001); I2 = 93.3 %). When results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were pooled in subgroup analyses of AHI, there was a tendency towards favoring sleeping without dentures (P = 0.059) and no evidence of heterogeneity between studies (Tau2 = 0.000; Q-value = 0.06, df = 1 (P = 0.80); I2 = 0.000 %). Conclusion The current evidence suggests that there is no difference in the sleep quality and integrity of individuals wearing or not wearing their denture during sleep. However, the results of randomized controlled trials favoring sleeping without dentures and the likely presence of bias in the previous studies indicate the need for further randomized controlled trials for the development of clinical guideline

Study on anticorrosion properties of epoxy primers on steel.

Epoxy resin DER 671X75 was reinforced by nanoclay cloisite 30B with content of 2% and primer coatings based on epoxy resin DER 671X75 were formed with pigments, fillers. Epoxy coating  films were exposed by electrochemical method in NaCl 3.5 % solution in 28 days and salt spray accelerated tester in 330 hrs. The results show that nanoclay cloisite 30B are improved anticorrosion properties of primer coatings based on epoxy resin DER671X75. Keywords. Epoxy primer coating, nanoclay cloisite 30B, epoxy resin DER 671X75, electrochemical, anticorrosion properties steel