Supply chain members cannot act independently and they need to act as a part of a unified system and coordinated with other members. Therefore, a coordination mechanism may be necessary to motivate members to achieve coordination. In this paper, the coordination problem is studied in a two-level supply chain consisting of a supplier and a retailer where demand is a function of price and advertising expenditures in two scenarios. The first scenario is “No coordination”, and the other scenario is “coordination with Revenue sharing contract”. The models are solved using game theory, Cooperative and Nash equilibrium. Finally, numerical examples are presented indicating that the average expected profit in the second scenario, coordination with revenue sharing, is higher than the first scenario. In addition numerical examples indicate that as price and advertising elasticity to demand increase, profitability of supply chain decreases.

Cellular manufacturing is considered as a lean technique of producing similar parts using sells or groups of team members, workstations, or equipment to facilitate operations by removing setup and unnecessary cost components among various operations. Cell formation and layout planning are the most components of the cellular manufacturing. This paper presents a dynamic method to minimize different costs including the total cost of movements within and between cells and exceptional parts. In this study, the Hierarchical Genetic Algorithm (HGA) is used for solving the resulted model and the results are compared with genetic algorithm. The results have indicated that the proposed method could reach optimal solutions for some small and medium sized problems in reasonable amount of time.

Green supply chain management (GSCM) has become an emerging concept among the environmental management topics during the last few years. There are some pressures that push industries to adopt GSCM like: governmental regulations, tough market competition for green image, pressure from Non-governmental organizations, media pressures and other pressures for environmental actions. These pressures can be more considerable for special industries like mining and mineral industries, because of their activities which can cause more damages to environment. As it is not possible to respond to all of the pressures at the same time, identifying and ranking the most important pressures can be very useful for managers & apos; decisions. This study aims to identify and evaluate the pressures for GSCM adopting according to Iranian mining experts & apos; opinions by using grey methodology.

Suitable project manager has a significant impact on successful accomplishment of the project. Managers should possess such skills in order to effectively cope with the competition. In this respect, selecting managers based on their skills can lead to a competitive advantage towards the achievement of organizational goals. selection of the suitable project manager can be viewed as a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem and an extensive evaluation of criteria, such as Technical skills, experience skills, Personal qualities and the related criteria must be considered in the selection process of project manager. The fuzzy set theory and MCDM methods appears as an essential tools to provide a decision framework that incorporates imprecise judgments and multi criteria nature of project manager selection process inherent in this process. This paper proposes the joint use of the Fuzzy DEMATEL (FDEMATEL) and Fuzzy VIKOR methods for the decision-making process of selecting the most suitable managers for projects. First, with the opinions of the senior managers based on project management competency model (ICB-IPMA), all the criteria required for the selection are gathered. Then the FDEMATEL method is used to prioritize the importance of various criteria and FVIKOR used to rank the alternatives in a preferred order to select the best project managers from a number of alternatives. Next, a real case study used to illustrate the process of the proposed method. Finally, some conclusions are discussed at the end of this study.

The immobilized NaHSO4·H2O on activated charcoal was used as a highly efficient promoter system for facile N-formylation of amines with ethyl formate. All reactions were carried out in refluxing ethyl formate (54 ?C) under mild conditions within 10-100 min to afford the product formamides in high to excellent yields (80-94%).

A series of new Schiff bases of 4-(methylthio)benzaldehyde derivatives 3(a-i) were synthesized by the reaction of 4-(methylthio)benzaldehyde with various amines 2(a-i). Newly synthesized compounds were characterized by elemental analyses, UV-visible, FT-IR, Mass and 1H NMR spectral studies. All compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activity against clinically isolated strains i.e., E. Coli, P. Fluorescence, M. Luteus and B. Subtilis. These compounds were screened for their antioxidant activity by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH•) and ferrous ion chelating assay (Fe2+) methods. The cytotoxicity assay was performed by tryphan blue dye exclusion method. Compounds 3g, 3h and 3i exhibited good antibacterial activity when compared with other compounds in the series against tested pathogenic bacterial strains. All the compounds showed antioxidant activity, where compound 3b was the best radical scavenger and Fe2+ ion scavenger. These findings showed that the Schiff bases of 4-(methylthio)benzaldehyde derivatives possess antioxidant activity with different mechanism of actions towards the different free radicals tested. Among these derivatives, 3b and 3h had the strongest activity against human peripheral lymphocytes.

The life of many people across the world can face various dangers with incurrence of incidents and unpredictable diseases. Incidents often require quick relief as they directly affect human lives. The process of planning, management and monitoring the flow of relief sources to injured and sick individuals is called relief logistics. When best relief services are provided through available sources, relief logistics appear. In this article, a multi-objective model for relief resources distribution facilities under an uncertain condition is investigated in two ways of demand satisfaction by considering the relief resources accessibility and demand satisfaction in a fuzzy logic. In the presented model, the concepts of cost, chance of demand satisfaction, elevation of response capability of system, discount levels for relief commodities, late satisfaction of demand, hub for accumulation of late and returned orders and special route for time significance in distribution of relief commodities are considered. For the first problem, the chance of relief resources accessibility and for the second problem, demands were investigated using fuzzy logic. Considering the conducted analysis, the demand amount is taken more in the second problem than the first one, which has led to an increase in the cost of the second problem. On one hand, the chance of demand satisfaction with no late orders is higher than the second problem. Satisfaction of demand occurs more in the second problem as well. Thus, these problems should be utilized in a way that suits the space of this problem. To solve the problem and to do the sensitivity analysis, we present a NSGA-II algorithm to deal with multi-objectiveness of the problem. A ε-Constraint method is also proposed to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm.

The complexity and vulnerability of supply chains in today's globalized economy have heightened the significance of understanding and managing disruptions. Supply chain disruptions, ranging from natural disasters to pandemics, can lead to substantial delays, increased costs, and reduced quality, thereby impacting the operational performance and stability of businesses. Considering the theoretical sophistication and substantial relevance of the field, this research seeks to conduct an extensive bibliometric analysis of supply chain disruption. The goal is to offer a thorough summary of recent advancements and ongoing progress in this specific area. Additionally, it aims to pinpoint emerging research patterns that can guide future studies. We performed a bibliometric review of the structure and global trends of disruptions among supply chains, from 1996 to 2024 using techniques such as analysis of (1) the dataset, (2) sources, (3) authors, (4) countries and institutions, (5) documents, and (6) keywords. A total of 1356 bibliographic records from Web of Science databases were analyzed to generate the study’s research data through Scientometrics networks. The paper concludes by discussing the strengths and limitations of the study and suggesting potential avenues for future research, aiming to guide and inform future studies in this critical area of supply chain management. The findings of this study will enhance understanding of the prevailing patterns in this topic, thus laying the groundwork for future research initiatives in this field.

The present work summarizes some recent experimental, theoretical and numerical results on brittle fracture of isostatic polycrystalline graphite. The analyses have been carried out on V-notched samples under mixed mode (I+II), torsion and compression loading, considering various combinations of the notch tip radius, opening angle and notch tilt angle. The static strength of the considered specimens is assessed through an approach based on the strain energy density averaged over a control volume. The center of the control volume is located on the notch edge, where the principal stress reaches its maximum value. The correct orientation is obtained by a rigid rotation of the crescent-shaped volume while the size depends on the fracture toughness and the ultimate strength of the material. This methodology has been already used in the literature to analyze U- and V-shaped notches subject to mode I loading with very good results and advantages with respect to classic approaches. The results reported in this new work show, also under mixed mode loading conditions, good agreement between experimental data and theoretical predictions.

Sustainable development in supply chain management is of great importance, as it emphasizes that the procurement process in sustainable supply chains addresses not only current needs but also future requirements. This subject, by improving processes, reducing waste and energy consumption, increasing efficiency, and establishing sustainable relationships with suppliers and customers, contributes to the sustainability and success of companies in international competition. Moreover, hub location is crucial for optimizing distribution processes and reducing costs in the supply chain, especially for perishable products with a defined and limited shelf life, which imposes various constraints on the supply chain. Additionally, to bring mathematical models closer to reality, uncertainty approaches can be employed, and strategies to deal with uncertainty can be considered. This research delves into these issues in the realm of supply chain management, focusing on sustainability and uncertainty, and provides a review of research conducted in the literature of this field.