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Some valuable results over rings have a promising utilization in coding theory and error-correcting code theory. In this paper, we study character sums over a certain non-chain ring and their applications in codebooks. There are two major ingredients in this study. The first ingredient is to investigate Gaussian sums, hyper Eisenstein sums, Jacobi sums over a certain non-chain ring and study the properties of these character sums. For their applications, the second ingredient is to present three classes of asymptotically optimal codebooks with respect to the Welch bound and a family of optimal codebooks with respect to the Levenshtein bound, which are constructed from character sums over a certain non-chain ring.

Pole skipping is a recently discovered subtle effect in the thermal energy density retarded two point function at a special point in the complex $(\omega,p)$ planes. We propose that pole skipping is determined by the stress tensor contribution to many-body chaos, and the special point is at $(\omega,p)_\text{p.s.}= i \lambda^{(T)}(1,1/u_B^{(T)})$, where $\lambda^{(T)}=2\pi/\beta$ and $u_B^{(T)}$ are the stress tensor contributions to the Lyapunov exponent and the butterfly velocity respectively. While this proposal is consistent with previous studies conducted for maximally chaotic theories, where the stress tensor dominates chaos, it clarifies that one cannot use pole skipping to extract the Lyapunov exponent of a theory, which obeys $\lambda\leq \lambda^{(T)}$. On the other hand, in a large class of strongly coupled but non-maximally chaotic theories $u_B^{(T)}$ is the true butterfly velocity and we conjecture that $u_B\leq u_B^{(T)}$ is a universal bound. While it remains a challenge to explain pole skipping in a general framework, we provide a stringent test of our proposal in the large-$q$ limit of the SYK chain, where we determine $\lambda,\, u_B,$ and the energy density two point function in closed form for all values of the coupling, interpolating between the free and maximally chaotic limits. Since such an explicit expression for a thermal correlator is one of a kind, we take the opportunity to analyze many of its properties: the coupling dependence of the diffusion constant, the dispersion relations of poles, and the convergence properties of all order hydrodynamics., Comment: 39 pages, 13 figures

With the rapid evolution of the blockchain technologies, the interoperability of different blockchain systems is emerging as one of the essential features of blockchains. Sidechains, a mechanism providing communications between different blockchains, have been heralded as the crucial factor of blockchain interoperability. However, there are still issues that need to be addressed in terms of security and feasibility. In this paper, for proof-of-stake (PoS) and proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains, we propose efficient sidechain constructions with fast cross-chain transfers and small proof size by novel cross-chain certificate generation process and committee selection methods. Moreover, we also provide an extra functionality of supporting instant cross-chain transfers, such that emergent cross-chain transactions can be processed immediately. Compared to prior sidechains, our PoS sidechain construction can achieve faster cross-chain transfers, which improves the promptness of cross-chain transfers. While our PoW sidechain construction is more efficient with smaller proof size, reducing the storage and bandwidth overhead. Furthermore, we formally prove our sidechain constructions satisfying the properties of atomicity and timeliness. Finally, we develop a proof-of-concept implementation of our sidechains, and the experimental results show our constructions is not only faster, but also efficient with low storage and bandwidth overhead.

This study examined how Finnish parents working non-standard hours (N=18) positioned institutional flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a link in their chain of childcare. Interview data, analysed following the principles of discursive psychology, yielded three discourses on flexibly scheduled ECEC: the discourse of the child’s best interest, the discourse of the labour market, and the discourse of equality of opportunity for the child. Flexibly scheduled ECEC was positioned in these discourses either as the last resort option for childcare, a safe haven for the child, a societal service enabling parents to work during non-standard hours or as a place for children’s learning. It is important to recognise the origins of these discourses and reflect on them to improve ECEC services, so that they meet the demands of safety as a link in the chain of childcare and increase the level of parental satisfaction with them.

In this technical note, free-will arbitrary time terminal sliding mode control design is proposed. With such a design, it is possible to control the time duration of sliding in the sliding phase. Under the assumption that the chosen arbitrary time is greater than the reaching phase time (tr), it is shown that the nth order chain of integrators converges to zero within the selected arbitrary time. An algorithm is also proposed for the case when tr is not known to the designer. Stability analysis based on Lyapunov theory has been provided.

Although most network studies involve the collection of either ego or whole network data, a smaller subset of work has focused on the collection of network chain data. Collecting network chain data involves collecting a path in an unobserved whole network, and can be useful for capturing phenomena like degrees of separation or search processes. In this paper, we draw on past network chain data collection studies and reviews to propose a design framework for network chain data collection. Next, we use this framework to describe the qualitative collection of network chain data from a pilot sample of public school educators, and the quantitative collection of network chain data from a statewide sample of 600 public school principals and superintendents. Drawing on lessons learned from these data collection efforts, we discuss specific data collection strategies for improving the quality of network chain data, reflecting on what worked and what didn’t, offering recommendations for future studies involving network chain data collection.

This paper develops a model for a cold chain operated among a single product manufacturer and multiple retailers to minimize the total cost of the chain. A distinguishing feature of the cold chain is that the quality of the product degrades with time. The storage temperature and time influence the degradation rate. In this context, quality can be measured using multiple distinct indices. A global stability index is used to quantify the overall quality. The non-Arrhenius model is exclusively applied to measure the quality degradation during the transportation and at a retailer's storage as the product moves in the cold chain. Optimal replenishment times for the manufacturer and retailers are decision variables and the cold chain's total cost includes the cooling cost, carbon emission cost, and loss of value in addition to the traditional supply chain costs. It is found that for a given manufacturer's replenishment time, the total cost is convex on each retailer's replenishment time. Hence, an algorithm is developed based on this property to find the optimal replenishment times for the manufacturer and retailers. This paper also investigates how specific cold chain parameters influence optimal decisions and the total cost. The analyses show that the resulting costs will be significantly higher if quality degradation is ignored in a cold chain.

The enhancement of sustainability of hydrogen supply chain is of vital importance for the stakeholders/decision-makers to design a sustainable hydrogen supply chain. The objective of this chapter is to develop a method for prioritizing the influential factors, identifying the key driving factors that influence the sustainability of hydrogen supply chain and mapping the cause–effect relationships to improve the sustainability of hydrogen supply chain. In this chapter, 37 criteria in 4 aspects including economic, technological, environmental, and societal aspects are considered for enhancing the sustainability of hydrogen supply chain, and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory has been used to analyze the relationships among these criteria. The status of hydrogen supply chain in China has been studied by the proposed method, and the results are consistent with the actual conditions. It could be concluded that the proposed method is feasible and could be popularized to some other cases.

Mechanosensory elastomers attract intense interests in the academic and industrial fields. However, molecular insight of macroscopic properties remains a significant challenge. Herein, we build up ...

This paper presents a monolithically integrated E-band amplifier multiplier chain (AMC) developed in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS process. This E-band AMC is composed of a 25 GHz 1:1 power divider, two 25 GHz driver amplifiers (DA 1,2 ), a 75 GHz passive frequency tripler, and a 75 GHz power amplifier (PA). By applying a bypass tuning capacitor based power enhancing technique in the single-ended DA and PA, the output power and power-added-efficiency (PAE) of the AMC have been effectively improved. Benefiting from the proposed passive tripler core with second harmonic suppression function, and the impedance matching network with frequency selection characteristics, the AMC presents better harmonic suppression performance compared with the conventional topology. The bias circuits with temperature compensation are applied to the DA and PA to ensure the performance of the AMC when the temperature changes. The AMC has a measured output power exceeding 0 dBm in the entire E-band frequency range with a peak output power of 10.9 dBm at 77 GHz, and exhibits a record PAE of 8.25 %. Within the 3 dB operating frequency range from 69 to 87 GHz, the rejection of fundamental and second harmonics are better than 33.5 dB. The AMC can work properly between -40 °C and 125 °C with the proposed temperature compensation bias circuits.

This paper introduces Riordan-Krylov matrices. These matrices naturally generalize Riordan matrices by using Krylov matrices and a more general class of algebras in place of formal power series. Fundamental properties of Riordan-Krylov matrices that are analogous to those of Riordan matrices are developed. These results and techniques are used to study incidence algebras of a poset as well as the chain and zeta-multichain polynomials of the poset. Throughout the paper applications to enumeration problems in combinatorics and number theory are provided.

This paper introduces the concept of measure chain theory in order to design event–triggered controllers for systems evolving on arbitrary time domains. The event–triggering mechanism is derived from input–to–state (ISS) stable Lyapunov functions defined on measure chains. These results not only unify existing event–triggered controller design procedures for systems on continuous and discrete time domains, but also extend them to non–homogeneous time domains. Numerical simulations for systems on different measure chains illustrate the effectiveness of the designed event–triggered controllers.

Industry 4.0 has fostered innovation in industries around the world. Manufacturing industries in particular are advancing towards smart manufacturing by integrating and applying relevant technologies. The output value of machine tools in Taiwan is among the top of the world and the central region is a key area for this industry chain, which supplies manufacturers in Taiwan and their international downstream customers. To support innovation in this industry, the current study used the Six Sigma quality indices for smaller-the-better, larger-the-better, and nominal-the-best quality characteristics to construct a fuzzy decision-making model. Based on this model, we propose a process quality fuzzy analysis chart (PQFAC) for process quality improvement. Our use of fuzzy decision values to replace lower confidence limits decreases the probability of misjudgment made by sampling errors. The proposed fuzzy model also offers a more accurate assessment of process improvement requirements. We provide a real-world example to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. Machine tool manufacturers can apply the platform and proposed model to evaluate their process capabilities for the vital parts suppliers and downstream customers, determine optimal machine parameter settings for processes with inadequate accuracy or precision, establish more suitable machine repair and maintenance systems, and combine the improvement experiences of customers to create an improvement knowledge base. This will enhance product value and industry competitiveness for the entire machine tool industry chain.

Due to massive flammable chemical materials and dense layout, domino accident chain always occurs in major accidents of atmospheric storage tank farm. In this paper, 136 domino effect accidents of atmospheric tanks are analyzed to achieve relative probability by ETA method. Based on accident probability, an analysis model is proposed to define the most likely accident chain and the key tank in the atmospheric tank farm. To get the real accident scenario, the method adopts the heat radiation model of pool fire under the fire extinguishing conditions. Combined with the dynamic Bayesian network, the escalation model of accident chain is established to figure out the dynamic probability of the tank under the condition of fire extinguishing. Finally, an example is used to verify the feasibility of the method. It is of great theoretical significance and application value for the treatment of domino accident in atmospheric tank farm.

The control of the self-assembly of lanthanide helical chain as well as the helical handedness have been investigated for the first time. Δ- and Λ-form lanthanide chain were obtained by introducing the thiazolidine ligand synthesized from L-/D- cysteine, respective, which share the same formula, [Ln2(L)3(H2O)5]∞·3H2O (Ln: Sm and Eu)(L: 2-(2-hydroxy-3,5-dinitrophenyl)thiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid). Crystallographic characterization, circular dichroism and luminescent properties were studied for these four novel lanthanide chain complexes.

Hydrogen is a potential energy carrier for renewables that has a clean emission during the point of use. To implement hydrogen energy system in large-scale, a comprehensive hydrogen supply network should be built to supply the hydrogen with optimal infrastructure arrangement. Although the optimization of hydrogen supply chain has been extensively studied, the investigation of an integrated hydrogen-electricity supply chain is still lacking. Considering the interconvertibility of hydrogen and electricity, this study presents a spatial optimization framework that integrates geographical information system with mathematical modelling for the design and optimization of a photovoltaic-based hydrogen-electricity supply chain. The proposed framework allows the concurrent targeting of vehicle fuel and electricity demands as well as the identification of suitable locations for supply chain infrastructures. Case study results showed that the minimum cost of hydrogen-electricity supply chain is about 14.9 billion USD/y assuming two days of autonomy, and the cost of battery constitutes 43% of the total supply chain cost. When the days of autonomy is 8 and above, electricity storage in the form of hydrogen and reconversion through fuel cell is preferred.

This research aims to show how decision sciences can make a significant contribution on handling the supply chain problem during Covid-19 Pandemic. The paper discusses how robust optimization handles uncertain demand in agricultural processed products supply chain problems within two scenarios during the pandemic situation, i.e., the large-scale social distancing and partial social distancing. The study assumes that demand and production capacity are uncertain during a pandemic situation. Robust counterpart methodology is employed to obtain the robust optimal solution. To this end, the uncertain data is assumed to lie within a polyhedral uncertainty set. The result shows that the robust counterpart model is a computationally tractable through linear programming problem. Numerical experiment is presented for the Bandung area with a case on sugar and cooking oil that is the most influential agricultural processed products besides the main staple food of the Indonesian people, rice.

We give a construction of quantum LDPC codes of dimension $\Theta(\log N)$ and distance $\Theta(N/\log N)$ as the code length $N\to\infty$. Using a product of chain complexes this construction also provides a family of quantum LDPC codes of distance $\Omega(N^{1-\alpha/2}/\log N)$ and dimension $\Omega(N^\alpha \log N)$, where $0 \le \alpha < 1$. We also introduce and study a new operation called lifted product, which naturally generalizes the product operations for quantum codes and chain complexes. Moreover, as a simple byproduct of our results on quantum codes, we obtain a new result on classical codes. We show that for any fixed $R < 1$ there exists an asymptotically good family of classical quasi-cyclic LDPC codes of rate at least $R$ with, in some sense, optimal circulant size $\Omega(N/\log N)$ as the code length $N\to\infty$., Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

The purpose of the article is to evaluate the factors affecting supply chain finance and the influence of supply chain finance on supply chain financing performance and SMEs performance in Vietnam. The study was conducted on 856 small and medium enterprises in Vietnam for 3 consecutive months. The data is processed by Smart PLS 3.3.6 software, the results show that credit quality, supply chain integration, information sharing, and information technology all have a statistically significant impact on supply chain finance. Besides, supply chain finance has a statistically significant impact on supply chain financing performance and SMEs performance. Finally, the innovation capability and the market response capability act as full mediators in the relationship between supply chain finance and supply chain financing performance. Based on the research results, we propose solutions and recommendations to help small and medium enterprises better access capital and improve business performance.

In recent years, overlap functions, as a class of bivariate aggregation operators that are widely used in various application problems (see, e.g., in decision-making, image processing, classifications etc.), have been generalized to many forms. In particular, Paiva et al. (R. Paiva, E. Palmeira, R. Santiago, B. Bedregal, Lattice-valued overlap and quasi-overlap functions, Information Sciences 562 (2021) 180–199.) have generalized the overlap functions to the so-called quasi-overlap functions lately. In the meantime, considering aggregation operators on finite chains, especially the commonly bivariate aggregation operators (see, e.g., t-norms, t-conorms, uninorms, t-operators etc.) has become an important research topic in the fields of aggregation operators. In this paper, we take into account this research topic for quasi-overlap functions. First of all, we give the concept of quasi-overlap functions on a finite chain L with n + 2 elements and its arbitrary subchains together with three generalized forms of quasi-overlap functions on any subchain of L . And then, we show some examples of quasi-overlap functions on L along with some of its specific subchains and study the idempotent property, Archimedean property and cancellation law of quasi-overlap functions on L . Finally, we obtain two construction methods of quasi-overlap functions on L , one of them is the ordinal sum construction.

The features of a holistic view in an organization create the data value of the Business Intelligence (BI) and Knowledge Management (KM) in viewing the big picture of organizational performance diagnostics framework. This research focuses on the specific features of railway supply chain performance in viewing the decision-making process and creating better knowledge formation. The intention of the study is to structure supplier performance using BI-KM framework development to determine holistic perspective factors. The outcomes indicate that BI and KM significantly increased the railway supply chain and significantly increased the information system. This BI-KM framework relates the current analytic characteristics in designing the railway supply chain towards information system in determining the strategic theme of the decision-making process of the decision support system together with system features, characteristics of data, the content of the themes, and the effect of the decision-making process and for executive strategic performance diagnostics tool that provides effective strategic decision making in supply chain performance. The quantitative research method uses SmartPLS software version 3.2.8 for empirical analysis through distributing survey questionnaires to 320 railway suppliers in Malaysia. Using a model-driven development framework, to measure the implementation success of the decision support system, the study is conducted in the railway supplier focusing on strategic management that helps to make the decision and facilitate the organizational success.

Supply chain management is an activity that effectively integrates suppliers, companies, retailers where goods are produced and distributed at the right quality, location, and time with minimum cost levels to provide the highest quality services for consumers. Supply chain agility, supply chain adaptability, supply chain alignment, which is known as the Triple-A strategy, are elements to form supply chain performance. In this study, we tried to apply it to SMEs in developing countries, such as Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to show whether it is true that the supply chain cannot be applied to SMEs, while for a disruption as it is today, competition is getting tougher not only among SMEs but also against large companies, and SMEs need to develop several strategies that were previously unimaginable. This study uses quantitative techniques to determine the effect of supply chain agility, supply chain adaptability, supply chain alignment on supply chain performance either partially or simultaneously. The results showed that all hypotheses were accepted. This shows that supply chain management can be a strategy to create better SMEs performance and can even be used to achieve competitive advantage.

This study aims to examine the effects of the business environment and supply chain governance on business strategies and their impact on the performance of state-owned enterprises in Indonesia. Using Partial Least Square (PLS) and quantitative research, this study took state companies management and commissioners as the respondents. The study concludes that the business environment has a positive and significant effect on business strategy, and supply chain governance has a positive and significant effect on business strategy. Moreover, the results show that the business environment influences corporate performance, and supply chain governance has an effect on corporate performance. Business strategy influences corporate performance, and business strategy can mediate the influence of the business environment on corporate performance. Lastly, business strategy can mediate the influence of supply chain governance on corporate performance. The results theoretically confirm the supply chain governance in business practice and practically encouraged the company management to develop risk-management and effective internal controls to create competitive business climate and more agile supply chain management.

This paper sets out a general framework for store sales evaluation and prediction. The sales of a retail chain with multiple stores are first decomposed into five components, and then each component is explained by store, competitor and consumer characteristics using random effects models for components observable at the store level and spatial error random effects models for components observable at the zip code level. We use spatial panel data over four years for estimation and a subsequent year for evaluating one-year-ahead predictions. Set against a benchmark model that explains total sales directly, the prediction error of our framework is reduced by 34% for existing stores during the sample period, by 5% for existing stores one year ahead and by 26% for new stores.

The study aims to test the impact of risk on supply chain cooperation in the agriculture sector in Vietnam. The research paper used the quantitative research method through analysing structural equation modelling (SEM), with a dataset of 518 observations. The survey subject is the experienced and knowledgeable manager in supply chain management in the agricultural sector. The result found that risk has impacted not only directly and negatively on the supply chain cooperation but also indirectly through intermediary factors, namely commitment and the participant's opportunistic behaviour. In addition, the study has also proved that in some cases, the participant's dependency mentality in work and opportunistic behaviour lead to the opposite impact of commitment on trust and level of supply chain cooperation in agriculture. Based on this result, the study also makes recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of the supply chain cooperation in the agricultural sector in Vietnam. The findings contributed to both theory and practice. It pointed out the impact of risk on the supply chain cooperation in the agricultural sector, as well as the mediating role of commitment and opportunistic behaviour in this relationship.

The supply chain has been a major component of competitive strategy to enhance organizational productivity and profitability, and the supply chain is a relatively new and rapidly expanding discipline that is transforming the way that manufacturing and non-manufacturing operations meet the needs of their customers. This study aims to establish the role of management accounting in the development of supply chain performance in logistics manufacturing companies. The study applies a quantitative research methodology and uses a questionnaire method to collect the data. The study sample consists of 181 respondents. This study analyzes the data using the (SPSS) program. The results reveal a statistically significant relationship at the significance level (α≤0.05) between the management accounting, including the “target cost, value chain costing and quality costing” and supply chain performance in logistics manufacturing companies.

Parallel prefix adder topologies suffer from carry chains forming critical paths, limiting the performance and therefore the efficiency. We study approximation methods that offload the lower-part of calculation to an approximate unit and shorten the carry chain. We derive their accuracy models using probability theory. These models can replace Monte Carlo simulations. Furthermore, they can reveal better accuracy trade-offs without going through the RTL design, synthesis, and simulation of each unit and approximation level individually. Thus, they can eliminate the required design and simulation time and effort. After analyzing area-wise comparisons at varying number of approximated bits, we show that choosing a design that outperforms the others probabilistically also outperforms them in terms of accuracy, power, and performance trade-offs.

In the issue of cyber security, block-chain, which is best known for crypto currencies, is providing an interesting answer. Block-chain has excellent safeguards against information manipulation. It supports securing access to Internet of Things (IOT) devices. Furthermore, it enables hacked IOT network instruments to be closed and unplugged. Block-chain serves as a distributed ledger system. It is used in conjunction with IOT to enable machine-to-machine interactions. It makes use of a database that contains a collection of transactions. These transactions are double-checked and recorded in a central ledger. On each node, these ledgers have been deployed. The idea of block chain is discussed in conjunction with the Internet of Things in this research study. Several studies in the fields of block-chain and IOT are considered in this paper. The necessity for block-chain and its development have been discussed in terms of its applicability difficulties. In addition, the significance of block chain in IOT-based research for online transaction security is examined.

The purpose of the article is to examine the response of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam to supply chain finance and then have a strategy to use supply chain risk resilience to control supply chain risk and improve supply chain effectiveness and SMEs performance. The analysis results are based on three months of data collected from 890 SMEs in Vietnam. The results show that supply chain finance has a statistically significant positive impact on supply chain effectiveness, SMEs performance and supply chain risk resilience. At the same time, supply chain finance has a negative impact on the supply chain risk of Vietnam SMEs in the global supply chain. Finally, we offer recommendations to help SMEs improve supply chain effectiveness and performance through the supply chain finance tool.

The Kirchhoff index and degree-Kirchhoff index have attracted extensive attentions due to their wide applications in physics and chemistry. These indices have been computed for many interesting graphs, such as linear polyomino chain, linear/Mobius/cylinder hexagonal chain, and linear octagonal chain. In the present paper, we consider Mobius octagonal chain ( M n ) and cylinder octagonal chain ( M n ′ ). Explicit closed-form formulae of the Kirchhoff index and the number of spanning trees are obtained for M n and M n ′ .

Let $ R $ be a finite commutative chain ring with invariants $ p, n, r, k, m. $ It is known that $ R $ is an extension over a Galois ring $ GR(p^n, r) $ by an Eisenstein polynomial of some degree $ k $. If $ p\nmid k, $ the enumeration of such rings is known. However, when $ p\mid k $, relatively little is known about the classification of these rings. The main purpose of this article is to investigate the classification of all finite commutative chain rings with given invariants $ p, n, r, k, m $ up to isomorphism when $ p\mid k. $ Based on the notion of j-diagram initiated by Ayoub, the number of isomorphism classes of finite (complete) chain rings with $ (p-1)\nmid k $ is determined. In addition, we study the case $ (p-1)\mid k, $ and show that the classification is strongly dependent on Eisenstein polynomials not only on $ p, n, r, k, m. $ In this case, we classify finite (incomplete) chain rings under some conditions concerning the Eisenstein polynomials. These results yield immediate corollaries for p-adic fields, coding theory and geometry.

This research aimed to investigate the interrelationships among environmental forces, organizational capabilities, and supply chain sustainability. The mediation role of organizational capabilities and supplier relationship between environmental forces and Supply chain Sustainability were analyzed. Dataset obtained from 410 managers in the Jordanian food industry were used. PLS-SEM was conducted for analysis purposes. The findings reveal that environmental forces and organizational capabilities directly impact supply chain sustainability. The findings have additionally shown that supplier relationships and organizational capabilities played a mediation role between environmental forces and supply chain sustainability. The results show that companies might derive significant benefits from sustainable practices and consider them to maximize the success level of the supply chain sustainability initiative.

Extensive molecular simulations are applied to characterize the equilibrium dynamics, entanglement topology, and nonlinear extensional rheology of symmetric ring-linear polymer blends with systematically varied ring fraction $\phi_R$. Chains with degree of entanglement $Z\approx14$ mixed to produce 10 well-entangled systems with $\phi_R$ varying from neat linear to neat ring melts. Primitive path analysis are used to visualize and quantify the structure of the composite ring-linear entanglement network. We directly measure the quantity of ring-linear threading and linear-linear entanglement as a function of $\phi_R$, and identify with simple arguments a ring fraction $\phi_R\approx0.4$ where the topological constraints of the entanglement network are maximized. These topological analyses are used to rationalize the $\phi_R$-dependence of ring and linear chain dynamics, conformations, and blend viscosity. Complimentary simulations of startup uniaxial elongation flows demonstrate the extensional stress overshoot observed in recent filament stretching experiments, and characterize how it depends on the blend composition and entanglement topology. The overshoot is driven by an overstretching and recoil of ring polymer conformations that is caused by the convective unthreading of rings from linear chains. This produces significant changes in the entanglement structure of blends that we directly visualize and quantify with primitive path analyses during flow.

The purpose of this research is to better understand the impact of supply chain management (SCM) and flexibility on firm performance, as well as the role of competitive advantage in mediating the model in Indonesian agriculture companies. Companies must apply supply chain management and supply chain flexibility (SCF) to boost industrial competitiveness, which impacts firm performance. To ensure that supply chain management supports the company's strategy, companies must evaluate supply chain concerns. From the literature search, researchers have not found any published studies or articles on SCM and SCF in their influence on firm performance through competitive advantage, specifically for corn companies in Indonesia. The population in this study includes agriculture companies in Indonesia. Sampling was carried out using probability sampling technique, the total population of 200 obtained a sample size of 133.333 which can be rounded up to 134 research samples. The inferential statistical method used in the data analysis of this study was the Partial Least Square Version 3 program. The study found that SCM influenced firm performance and SCF had a direct influence on firm performance. However, competitive advantage variable failed in being a mediator in SCM and SCF on firm performance.

The development of Vietnam's economy in recent years has had positive contributions from the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector to the realization of socio-economic goals. The study found four factors affecting the business performance of FDI enterprises in the renewable energy supply chain: internal environment, user pressure, cooperation with suppliers, and environmental regulations. Synthesized research from 395 survey questionnaires at renewable energy enterprises in Vietnam. High-tech, low-energy businesses and the environmental goods sector can benefit Vietnam's environment and help the country achieve its green growth goals.

This study aims to analyze the supply chain performance mediation on the relationship between supplier flexibility, supply agility, and company performance. The population in this study were 100 broilers in the districts / cities in Banten Province. The data to be used in this study are primary data, through sending questionnaires. Development of theoretical models with five hypotheses processed in the analysis using SmartPLS Software version 3.0.m3. The results showed that supplier flexibility and supply agility have a positive and significant effect on company performance, supplier flexibility and supply agility have a positive and significant effect on supply chain performance and supply chain performance has a positive and significant effect as an intervening variable to the company performance. Supply chain mediation has an important role in integrating production processes from upstream to downstream, including establishing good relations between businesses involved in supply chain management to improve the company's performance.

The objective of the article is to evaluate the role of laws and regulations on food safety in the implementation of food safety laws in Vietnam. Food safety regulations through business orientation, supply chain dynamic capabilities, and supply chain integration aim to ensure food safety and improve firm performance in Vietnam. Research data analysis is based on 389 food firms and the data are analyzed through Smart PLS 3.3.0 software. The results show the important role of food safety law in the implementation of food safety assurance of food enterprises. At the same time, supply chain dynamics and supply chain integration are also factors that have a statistically significant positive impact on the food safety performance of food enterprises in Vietnam.

Let $[n]=\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ be a finite chain. Let $\mathcal{P}_{n}$ and $\mathcal{T}_{n}$ be Semigroups of partial and full transformations on $[n]$ respectively. Let $\mathcal{CP}_{n}=\{\alpha\in \mathcal{P}_{n}: |x\alpha-y\alpha|\leq|x-y| \ \ \forall x, y\in \dom~\alpha\}$ and $\mathcal{CT}_{n}=\{\alpha\in \mathcal{T}_{n}: |x\alpha-y\alpha|\leq|x-y| \ \ \forall x, y\in [n]\}$, then $\mathcal{CP}_{n}$ and $\mathcal{CT}_{n}$ are subsemigroups of $\mathcal{P}_{n}$ and $\mathcal{T}_{n}$ respectively. In this paper, we characterize the idempotent elements and computed the number of idempotents of height, $n-1$ and $n-2$ for the semigroups $\mathcal{CP}_{n}$ and $\mathcal{CT}_{n}$ respectively.

We study the effects of income distribution on comparative costs and show that the presence of produced means of production dramatically affects the possibility to build a “chain of comparative advantages” to explain the direction of trade. Specifically, we show that: i) comparative autarky costs are bad predictors of the trade pattern because comparative costs are no longer proportional to relative wages; ii) to ensure that a single break in the chain suffices to separate imported from exported commodities, at most one tradable capital good may be employed in production. With heterogeneous capital goods, the chain may need to be broken into many segments. iii) A change in the profit rate may alter the ordering of the links, even if the chain is well behaved for a constant profit rate. And iv) the plausibility of the chain of comparative advantages requiring multiple links for the same industry increases with the profit rate.