A simple one-step procedure for synthesis of new derivatives of phenolic acids was developed. As the starting materials salicylic acid, vanillic acid and alkyl haloalkanoates were applied. The reactions were carried out in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) in the presence of anhydrous potassium carbonate. Conditions for regioselective synthesis of target compounds were established. The esters 3a-h were obtained in great yields and were characterized by MS, 1H and ¹³C NMR spectra. Their photoprotective activity was evaluated in vitro by spectrophotometric method. The study revealed that the tested compounds are moderate UVB absorbers, but could be used to augment the effect of other photoprotective agents. Their SPF values were in the range from 3.63 to 4.26 for salicylates 3a-d and from 3.03 to 3.51 for vanillates.

In general, certified project management professionals are perceived to enhance project performance. However, this narrative has quite often been challenged in previous literature. We investigate this controversy by including professionalism and psychological capital as intervening variables. The research is based on an empirical survey of certified project managers in the region of Rawalpindi/Islamabad. 373 data samples were collected and further analyzed on the basis of critical success factor theory. The impact of project management certification along with intervening variables were hypothesized and validated to have direct and indirect relationships with project performance. Responses from certified project management professionals in the region of Rawalpindi/Islamabad support the perception but reflect that professionalism plays a supporting role between certification and performance. However, the study dismisses the role of psychological capital between professionalism and performance. We conclude that project management institutes and associations should ensure professionalism in the certification process to actually enhance project performance. The findings contribute to the body of knowledge in predicting improved project management performance by employing certified project managers with strong professional skills. Consequently, the research will help professional institutes to review the conformity of the required professional skills rather than just focusing on just passing an exam.

An effective and expeditious method of the synthesis of a highly functionalized piperidines, catalyzed by nontoxic, recyclable and environment friendly sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), via one-pot multi-component condensation of aldehydes, amines and β-ketoesters in water at room temperature, has been developed. This new protocol has advantages such as moderate to high yields of products obtained after simple post reaction workup. Structure of the synthesized compounds 4a–4j have been elucidated based on the 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FT-IR spectroscopy and elemental analysis.

One of the most critical factors used to evaluate the efficiency of the portfolio selection process is the ability of the model to measure interdependencies among projects. Varieties of interactions among projects lead to several kinds of synergies in the whole portfolio, such as re-sources and knowledge interdependencies. There are few studies focused on project portfolio selection accompanied by modeling and estimating the impact of synergies between projects. Hence, this paper presents a model to select the best project portfolio applying a particular model to measure the effects of several types of interdependencies between paired projects. Then, the Promethee II method is used to prioritize projects. Then, the portfolio selection model, which is a non-linear integer model, is solved to find the best set of projects. Finally, numerical examples are addressed to illustrate the method results and validity.

This study aims to identify and evaluate the perception of major stakeholders on factors causing International Development Project (IDP) failure in the context of Afghanistan. The study adopts a quantitative cross-sectional survey research design. Thirty significant IDP failure factors included in the questionnaire were identified and shortlisted through literature reviews and validated by experts and IDP management practitioners. The survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire to investigate the most significant IDP failure factors, and various statistical tools were employed to evaluate the perception of the survey respondents. RII was used to examine the relative importance index of each failure factor. The failure factors were then grouped into five categories: Financial constraints, Ineffective recruitment, External forces, Project leadership, and Project management practices using EFA. The findings of the study will help the international development community and their IDP implementing partners, INGs and project management practitioners manage IDPs proactively and mitigate the risks of project failure. It will also contribute to the IDP management body of knowledge. The research is the first of its kind to examine the possible factors causing IDP failure in Afghanistan.

This study aims to investigate the antecedents of trust including Company Reputation, Website Design, Service Quality, and Security and Privacy Policy in an online environment within the Pakistani context. A pre-tested questionnaire survey is used in order to collect the response of e-shopper in three cities, Abbottabad, Haripur and Islamabad, from 200 Pakistani e-shoppers. SPSS was used to analyze the data and three techniques descriptive statistics, regression analysis and correlation analysis are applied. Findings revealed a positive direct relationship between the independent and dependent variables which validate the earlier studies.

This study synthesizes the use of chemicals to prevent one of common concrete durability problems, alkali-silica reaction (ASR), and can help researchers (i) identify widely used potential chemicals and evaluate these chemical solutions to prevent ASR with proper understanding of mechanisms, and (ii) to identify the research gaps in order to develop guidelines and implementation plan on the use of these chemicals for future research.

The current research copes with the optimization of the surface heat transfer coefficients of a square mild steel test specimen by spray impingement cooling. A laboratory scale experimental setup was developed at School of Mechanical Engineering KIIT University, Odisha, India to investigate the role of various process parameters to enhance the heat transfer from the surface of the heated steal specimen. The mild steel plates of dimension 120 mm × 120 mm, and different thicknesses of 4 mm, 6 mm and 8 mm were used in the experiment. The effect of the process parameters such as thickness of the tested plate, nozzle to plate distance, air and water pressure upon the surface heat transfer coefficient (HTC) was optimized. The optimization of the controlling parameters was carried out by using the desirability functions. The Design Expert 8 software was used to analyze the experimental results. A new correlation was developed for optimization of the surface heat transfer coefficient.

Online social networks (OSNs) provide services targeting multifarious types of users in order to attract and retain them. For this purpose, developing new services according to user preferences has recently been under focused by various researchers. Most of present studies focus only on extracting the behavioral patterns of users, and neglect users’ interactions, which is the main part of the social activities in OSNs. To cope with this issue, this paper proposes a new methodology to bring both dimensions of data, the extracted behavioral patterns of users and their social interactions, in order to reach a better analysis. Moreover, the idea provides a basis for considering other dimensions efficiently. In order to evaluate the performance of the methodology, this paper performs a case study, and conducts a set of experiments on the computer-generated datasets. The results indicates the great performance of the methodology.

n this paper, armchair rectangular monolayer graphene nanoplates were analyzed based on the assumption of orthotropic properties with different boundary conditions. For this purpose, the nonlocal elasticity and Kirchhoff theories were applied to analyze the small-scale effects on the armchair monolayer graphene nanoplates and obtain the static equation of the graphene nanoplates, respectively. As there were no readily accurate answers to the analyses of all the problems associated with nanoplates of different boundary and geometrical conditions, numerical methods were employed for obtaining approximate responses. One of the capable approaches to the analyses of the differential equations governing these types of plates is the meshless method. In this research, the Discrete Least Squares Meshless (DLSM) method was employed for the static analysis of rectangular nanoplates with different boundary conditions besides assessing the effect of nonlocal coefficient amount on the nanoplate deflection. According to the results of this investigation, it could be concluded that the method utilized here was suitable for solving the problems of nano-dimensions compared to the analytical and Galerkin meshless methods.