Over the past four decades, portfolio selection has been one of the most important con-cerns of researchers, project managers, project-oriented companies, and public agencies around the world. Although numerous studies have been done in this field, still there is a room for more improvement in both theory and practice. One of the yet unspoiled topics in this field is improving and balancing the efficiency of sub-portfolios while paying attention to portfolio optimization. This study employs data-mining tools to categorize projects into sub-portfolios and rank them. Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods are also used to weigh the criteria on which the ranking process is based. Finally, a novel multi-objective model is designed to optimize the efficiency of sub-portfolios and the gain of the main portfolio. The model is solved by NSGA II algorithm. This study introduces a hybrid framework by which project portfolio selection process can be carried out regarding strategic alignment, cost, and risk.

Nowadays the use of fossil fuels as a non-renewable energy source has become a major challenge because of the pollution and the environmental impact. Substitution of biomass as an energy source and its supply chain design is the main question. Because of difficulties such as supply chain complexity, uncertainty in variables and selecting the site of bio-refineries many studies have been conducted in this regard. Studies in the field of biomass and biofuel production are described and classified. Also the strategic decisions such as choosing the sites, selecting energy conversation technology, ensuring economic, environmental, technical, and social sustainability and tactical decisions including allocating resources to productive plants, selecting transport modes, and types of warehouses are addressed in the reviewed papers. We have reviewed 140 papers in the interval between 1997 and 2016 and classified them based on the objective functions. The articles are classified based on their being single or multi objectivity, linearity or nonlinearity. Finally, a classification based on the regions in which the studies have been done.

With the focus on calculating the equilibrium constant (Ka) of arsonic acids (RAsO(OH)2) in aqueous media, the behavior of both neutral and negatively charged species of some arsonic acids have been considered through the isodesmic reaction scheme with polarized continuum model of solvation. The relative pKa values of a number of arsonic acids were calculated using density functional theory (DFT), with methylarsonic acid (CH3AsO(OH)2) used as a reference molecule. Various basis sets such as (6-31G(d), 6-31+G(d), 6-311++G(d,p) and 6-311++G(2d,2p)) in conjunction with B3LYP computational method were examined. Finally the latter one was found to give better results. The results of applied B3LYP 6-311++G(2d,2p) method for pKa values of 25 arsonic acids in aqueous media showed good agreement with corresponding experimental pKa values. In this level of theory the average error was less than 0.3 pKa units. The type of substituent affected the acid strength, with electron withdrawing substituents lowering the pKa and electron releasing groups increasing it.

Application of cooling slope in casting is a relatively simple process with low equipment and processing costs, which is able to produce semi-solid slurries with different parameters such as pouring temperature, length and angle of slope plate, and plate type. In this study, the effect of angle and length of copper made slope plate on the microstructure of A360-Aluminum alloy is investigated. Microstructure study of metallographic samples in different conditions revealed that for 400mm slope length and 60° slope angle the optimum sphierized and homogenized microstructure is achieved. Also, under these conditions, the most hardness (77HB) was obtained, which might be because of suitable solidification conditions namely time and rate of shear stress. After finding the suitable conditions of slope length and angle, the effect of the circulation cooling system was examined; and the method with cooling system was found to result in more homogenized microstructure compared to ordinary method.

Since strategy planning describes organization strategy and helps people understand it, it has a significant role in strategic management by drawing cause-and-effect relations; this plan provides the management more power to correct administrating of strategies. In this paper, Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) approach is used to produce a strategic planning for tile and ceramic industry. In the method introduced in this paper, after identifying the key measure of function assessment in case study of tile and ceramic by using ISM stages, cause-and-effect relations among the measures have been identified and finally the diagraph which is the strategic plans in four dimensions (BSC) has been drawn.

Facile conversion of structurally different epoxides to the corresponding B-chlorohydrins was carried out successfully with anhydrous ZnCl2 in CH3CN. The reactions were carried out within 10-50 min to give B-chlorohydrins with perfect regioselectivity and high yields (80-97%).

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 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.

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.

This paper presents a survey to identify and rank the supply chain management factors influencing the quality of the products for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in food industry. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among 238 randomly selected managers of SMEs in food industry in city of Tehran, Iran. Cronbach alpha is calculated as 0.851, which is well above the acceptable level. Using principle component with Varimax rotation, the study has determined four important factors including strategic management, product management, manufacturing process management, organizational resources, customer orientation, industry capacity, which influence the most on product quality improvement.