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.

In this paper we develop an inventory model for deteriorating items with price sensitive demand. Generally the vendor offers a cash discount or fix time period to the retailer to pay all the dues. According to the availability of money the retailer chooses his/her option. In this paper we discuss the possible cases of permissible delay and cash discount. The shortages are allowed in this model and are partially backlogged. Holding cost is considered as varying function of time, which reflects a more realistic concept. The purpose of this study is to optimize the overall cost of the system and to compute optimal ordering quantity. Numerical examples for different cases are also presented to illustrate the study. A sensitivity analysis with regard to distinct associated parameters is shown to make sure the constancy of the model.

This paper describes a harmless HPLC technique for detecting imidacloprid (ICP) and its metabolite, 6-chloronicotinic acid (6CA), using an isocratic 100 % water mobile phase. Chromatographic separations were performed a Daisopak® SP-200-3-C1-P with water mobile phase and a photodiode-array detector. The total run time was & LT; 6 min. The system suitability was well within the international acceptance criteria. The detection limits were 0.018 ?g/ml for ICP and 0.005 ?g/ml for 6CA, respectively. A harmless HPLC method for simultaneous detecting ICP and 6CA was developed and may be further applied to the quantification in animal-derived foods.

This paper concentrates on the evaluation of reliability measures of a computer system of two-identical units having independent failure of h/w and s/w components. Initially one unit is operative and the other is kept as spare in cold standby. There is a single server visiting the system immediately whenever needed. The server conducts preventive maintenance of the unit after a maximum operation time. If server is unable to repair the h/w components in maximum repair time, then components in the unit are replaced immediately by new one. However, only replacement of the s/w components has been made at their failure. The priority is given to the preventive maintenance over repair activities of the h/w. The time to failure of the components follows negative exponential distribution whereas the distribution of preventive maintenance, repair and replacement time are taken as arbitrary. The expressions for some important reliability measures of system effectiveness have been derived using semi-Markov process and regenerative point technique. The graphical behavior of the results has also been shown for a particular case.

Making rational decisions in times of uncertainty is an important capability required of marketing managers. However, choosing the precise quantitative decision-making technique or a combination of such tools usually presents managers with a score of challenges. To lessen this challenge, this single case research demonstrates how the choice of three Bayesian decision models (Laplace criterion, Savage minimax regret, and Hurwicz coefficient of realization) can reduce uncertainty in content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and referral marketing decision. We employed the case study approach to enable direct access to the decision-making process of the case organization, and to collect relevant data relating to the three marketing decision variables. Results show that, although the Laplace criterion may not have a direct effect on content marketing decisions, it influences the decision-making process leading to the creation and promotion of content. The Savage minimax regret had a direct bearing on SEO decision-making. Hurwicz's coefficient of realization yielded no direct impact on referral marketing but shows the possibility of influencing decision-making processes that led to the development and implementation of referral marketing campaigns. The implications are discussed.

This paper presents an overview on recent studies on the role of gender in corporate governance. We study the recent works on the relationship between gender and firms’ financial performance as well as the relationship between gender and firms’ interest in global warming. According to our survey, it appears that firms with the presence of females had more concerns on green gas effects than other male oriented corporations did. Moreover, according to our survey, when a female member joins the board of directors, most investors consider this as a positive signal for profitability. In other words, it appears that the presence of female contributes to firm’s financial performance.

Different criteria are available in the literature to assess the fracture behaviour of sharp V-notches. A typical and well-known criterion is based on the application of the notch stress intensity factors (NSIFs), which are able to quantify the intensity of the stress fields ahead of the notch tip. This work considers two recent energy-based criteria applied here to sharp V-notches. The first criterion is based on the averaged value of the strain energy density (SED), while the second one called Finite Fracture Mechanics (FFM) criterion is available under two different formulations: that by Leguillon et al. and that by Carpinteri et al. Considering the averaged SED criterion, a new expression for estimating the control radius Rc under pure Mode II loading is proposed and compared with the sound expression valid under pure Mode I loading. With reference to pure Mode II loading the critical NSIF at failure can be expressed as a function of the V-notch opening angle. By adopting the three criteria considered here the expressions for the NSIFs are derived and compared. After all, the approaches are employed considering sharp V-notched brittle components under in-plane shear loading, in order to investigate the capability of each approach for the fracture assessment. With this aim a bulk of experimental data taken from the literature is used for the comparison.

The machinability of a material can be defined as the ease with which it can be machined. Materials with good machinability property require less power to cut, can be cut quickly, and easily obtain a good finish without wearing the tooling much. Therefore, to manufacture components economically, production engineers are challenged to discover ways to determine machinability of materials which mainly depends on their mechanical properties, as well as on other cutting conditions. In this paper, the machinability characteristics of alloys of three materials, i.e. aluminium, copper and steel are studied applying grey TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) method. For each case, eight different alloys are considered whose machinability is evaluated based on different mechanical properties which are expressed in grey numbers. Using the adopted methodology, it now becomes easier for the manufacturers to select a particular alloy that can be easily machined. It is observed that A357RC, CuCr1Zr and AISI 5140 are the best machinable aluminium, copper and steel alloys, respectively. It is also found that the ranking performance of grey TOPSIS method remains unaffected with the variation in greyness of the considered mechanical property values.

Piroxicam (POC) and oxfendazole (OFA) are two widely used veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and anthelmintic medicines, respectively. Simple, precise and accurate and cost-effective methods for the determination of POC and OFZ in bulk drug and in its dosage forms have been developed and validated. The methods are based on the potentiometric titration of compound with acetous perchloric acid in glacial acetic acid medium using modified glass-saturated calomel electrode system. The methods are applicable over the ranges 1.5 - 15 mg and 7.5-15 mg, for POC and OFA, respectively. The proposed methods were successfully applied to the determination of active substances in their pharmaceutical dosage forms. A statistical comparison was made on the results of proposed methods with those obtained for reference method. The intra-day and inter-day precision and accuracy values obtained were satisfactory with RSD and RE values less than 3%. Excipients in tablets did not interfere to the assay as shown by the recovery study via standard addition technique with mean percentage recoveries in the range 97.8 – 100.6%.

This study examines the role of gender on entrepreneurial marketing (EM) and Bangladeshi Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) performance relationship. A self-administered questionnaire was conducted. A total of 220 owners of SMEs in Bangladesh were selected randomly as respondents from the list of active SMEs in Dhaka and Narayanganj city. The data were analyzed by using SEM-AMOS package 25.0. This study finds that there was a significant and direct effect of entrepreneurial marketing on firm performance. In addition, there was a significant effect of gender as a moderating variable in this relationship. At the corporate level, this study provides insights for the SMEs in making decisions related to gender and firm performance. The implications of the above findings are discussed.