Strategic management in a port system is complex since the Port Community has to coordinate actions and generate synergy among all the private actors that integrate the export and import logistics chains, trade associations and trade unions. Based on the opinion of the port experts and the analytical network process (ANP), the research identifies the relevant criteria for strategic, business and operational decision-making in the Port Community, in the technological and risk contexts. With the criteria found and considering the strategic alignment that is required, management indicators are constructed. Based on a generic model, a new strategic conceptual model (PORTGD) of ANP for decision management is designed for the Port Community, a cause and effect analysis is carried out and a sensitization study is performed on the nodes. The discussion of the results and conclusions highlights the importance of technological investment, control of port security and good practices for the port system investigated.

This study aims to understand the uncertainty about the optimum or best pin position (Dp) for friction stir lap welding (FSLW) of Al-Cu. Tensile shear testing is used to determine the Mechanical strength of FSL welds under static loading. Fracture strength (σLap) corresponding to the maximum load in a test over the sample width is used as the strength value. Interface microstructures differ depending on whether the tool pin penetrates the lapping interface. It has been found that σLap values of the defect free weld samples vary quite significantly and in general are significantly higher than those reported in the literature. When the pin penetration is close to zero no intermetallic layers were formed, hence the value of σLap was zero. When the pin penetration is 0.4mm, the commonly observed a thin Al–Cu interface layer forms and this layer does not grow beyond 3µm. It is shown that the thin interfacial layer can withstand a high tensile-shear load and thus the adjacent Al material shears to fracture. When the pin penetrates more than 0.4mm, the commonly observed mix stir zone (MSZ) forms and values of σLap are lower than that of 0.4mm pin penetration welds but remain quite high.

Risk response planning is a widely concerned issue. Project managers usually struggle to control different kinds of risks. In project risk management, after evaluating risks, the final process relates to choosing desirable responses to the risks. In this paper, a comprehensive framework confronts the issue in three main phases. In the first phase, all the risks, responses and their relations in a geothermal drilling project are detected. These relations imply there are inner dependent and outer dependent relations. In the second phase, ANP, DEMATEL and fuzzy theory play important roles in weighting risks and responses. In the third phase, to enable a more realistic solution, a zero-one integer programming reflects a budget constraint and other required constraints. After obtaining the optimal responses, the effect of budget is analyzed. In addition, the influences of risks on each other are discussed more deeply. Collectively, this study offers a new perspective on how to handle project risks and choose their responses

The concept of a deformable body point is taken in the form of a continuum point and an elementary volume connected with it. The continuum point determines the spatial position of the deformable body point, and the elementary volume is the carrier of its material properties and stress-strain state characteristics. Based on this representation, restrictions on the state parameters at the edge points (singular points) of an isotropic body are constructed. These restrictions become preset conditions in singular points. The study covers possible interactions of the edge-forming surfaces with the external environment. It is shown that the restrictions formed at the edge points are usually more numerous than the restrictions at the regular point on the surface of a deformable body. This circumstance leads to a non-classical formulation of the mechanics problem for bodies with singular points. The combinations of geometric and material parameters of a structural component are discovered that determine the singular stresses behavior in elementary volumes with edge points. The load restrictions ensuring the compatibility of parameters defined at singular points are formulated. The attained results will apply to studying stress concentration in the vicinity of 3D-edges of structural components.

The purpose of this study is to develop a fuzzy Analytic Network Process (ANP) model that has the ability to evaluate employee performance in different strategies. A team of experts in the field of strategic human resource management and senior management of an organization engaged in steel production were involved in the study. The data collection tool was a questionnaire that was designed based on the criteria of organization's performance appraisal system. The results showed that in cost leadership strategy, compliance of work hierarchy, quantity of work and the ability to make important decisions constituted the highest coefficients, while in the focus strategy, participate in group work, power of supervision and administration and decision making ability had the highest importance. In differentiation strategy, innovation and creativity, quality and offering constructive suggestions received higher ratings than other criteria. Finally, the developed model was used to evaluate the performance of a sample employee.

This paper presents an investigation into the flexural behaviour of basalt FRP reinforced concrete beams through experimental and analytical methods. To achieve the research objectives, four concrete beams reinforced with steel and four identical concrete beams reinforced with BFRP bars were tested under four-point bending. The main parameters examined under the tests are the type of concrete (lightweight foam glass concrete and normal concrete) and the type of longitudinal reinforcement bars (BFRP and steel). Test results are presented in terms of failure modes; deformation crack pattern and the ultimate moment of resistance are presented. The experimental results are analysed and compared to predictive models proposed by ACI 440.1R, 2006 and BS EN 1992, Eurocode 2, for deformations and ultimate flexural capacities of the steel and BFRP reinforced concrete beams. The experimental results indicated that the flexural capacity decreased for the beams reinforced with BFRP bars compared to that of a corresponding beam reinforced with steel bars. Both types of beams failed in the modes predicted. The prediction models underestimated the flexural capacity of BFRP reinforced concrete beams. The increase in foam glass aggregate content was observed to reduce the cracking load by almost 10 - 40% and 25 - 50% for steel and BFRP reinforced concrete beams, respectively. The flexural capacities of BFRP reinforced beams were underestimated by using equations stipulated in ACI 440.1R and Eurocode 2 codes of practice.

One of the most promising strategies that will smooth out the maintainability issues of the software is refactoring. Due to lack of proper design approach, the code often inherits some bad smells which may lead to improper functioning of the code, especially when it is subject to change and requires some maintenance. A lot of studies have been performed to optimize the refactoring strategy which is also a very expensive process. In this paper, a component based system is considered, and a Fuzzy Multi Criteria Decision Making (FMCDM) model is proposed by combining subjective and objective weights to rank the components as per their urgency of refactoring. Jdeodorant tool is used to detect the code smells from the individual components of a software system. The objective method uses the Entropy approach to rank the component having the code smell. The subjective method uses the Fuzzy TOPSIS approach based on decision makers’ judgement, to identify the critically and dependency of these code smells on the overall software. The suggested approach is implemented on component-based software having 15 components. The constitute components are ranked based on refactoring requirements.

An enormous amount of heat is released at the contact surface during machining of a component/partdue to friction, rubbing action and cutting forces generated. Cutting fluids are generally applied to provide lubrication and cooling at the tool and workpiece interface. They also play a beneficial role in machining operations, and enhance job shop’s productivity, tool life and quality of the finished parts/products. In addition to these, they act as an important contributor in optimizing a machining operation. However, a cutting fluid suitable for a particular machining requirement may not be equally good for other applications and hence, there is a need for selection of the appropriate type of cutting fluid with a view to facilitate superlative and uncomplicated machining operation. Several factors, such as material ofthe cutting tool, operator’s safety, compatibility with the machine tool, reliability and rancidity of the cutting fluid, and cost may all combine to limit the effectiveness or applicability of a cutting fluid. Therefore, the present study explores the potentiality of a modified similarity-based method, which is a multi-criteria decision making tool, in solving cutting fluid selection problems. To illustrate the procedural steps of this method, two real time problems are solved. The results obtained highly corroborate with the opinions of the experts in the related field, demonstrating the applicability of the said method.

Social networks can provide sellers across the world with invaluable information about the structure of possible influences among different members of a network, whether positive or negative, and can be used to maximize diffusion in the network. Here, a novel mathematical monopoly product pricing model is introduced for maximization of market share in noncompetitive environment. In the proposed model, a customer’s decision to buy a product is not only based on the price, quality and need time for the product but also on the positive and negative influences of his/her neighbors. Therefore, customers are considered heterogeneous and a referral bonus is granted to every customer whose neighbors also buy the product. Here, the degree of influence is directly related to the intensity of the customers’ relationships. Finally, using the proposed model for a real case study, the optimal policy for product sales that is the ratio of product sale price in comparison with its cost and also the optimal amounts of referral bonus per customer is achieved.

This paper deals with the degree constrained k-cardinality minimum spanning tree (k-MSTPD) problem defined on a connected, edge weighted and undirected graph. The aim of this problem is to determine the least weighted spanning tree with exactly k vertices such that except the root vertex, no other vertex in the resultant spanning tree exceeds the specified degree limit. The k-MSTPD problem has many practical applications for the design of electric, communication, and transportation networks. The problem is then formulated as a zero-one programming. In this paper, an exact algorithm known as Lexi-search algorithm (LSA) is developed to tackle the k-MSTPD problem. Furthermore, the developed LSA is programmed in Matlab and tested on some benchmark instances as well as on random instances and the respective results are reported. The obtained experimental results showed that the developed LSA takes significantly less time to find the optimal solutions.