As the population grows and demand increases, cities have seen a rise in the number of chain stores. To remain competitive, these companies must reduce costs and attract more customers. A key factor in achieving this is the strategic placement of store branches, which reduces the distance between stores and customers, instilling trust and increasing their appeal while also cutting costs by reducing the need for employees to navigate longer distances. In this study, an integer linear programming model is presented with the goal of dividing a zone in Ahvaz city into several scenarios to determine the optimal number of stores while maintaining control over the distance between active stores. This research is the first to include this specific limitation in the mathematical model of the problem. The results of the study demonstrate a significant reduction in the distance between customers and stores.

Enzymatic assay, based on oxidation-reduction reaction catalyzed by alcohol dehydrogenase, is one of the methods used to determine ethanol concentration. The present study was directed to determine the exact amount of enzyme required to accomplish oxidation-reduction reaction so that the concentration of ethanol in the sample can be determined precisely and accurately. Results of the present study indicate that the lowest unit activity of the enzyme that can be used for ethanol determination is 4000 units/mL, even though longer incubation time compared to the original method was used to ensure reaction completion. Validation of the method confirmed that the assay have acceptable linearity range within 0.01 - 0.06% (v/v) of ethanol with correlation coefficient of 0.9999. Both accuracy and precision parameters fulfill the Association of Analytical Communities (AOAC) International requirement, and therefore can be accepted as a quantitative analysis method. Limit of detection and limit of quantitation for the modified method were 0.0017% (v/v) and 0.0056% (v/v), respectively.

Six-Sigma approach is a systematic and scientific operations management methodology aimed at achieving major enhancements in production process through the elimination of waste. In this case, a casting unit manufacturing cylinder blocks has been selected which was experiencing a rejection rate as high as 30% due to formation of blowholes, other than the surface. The main objective of this paper is to identify various causes of occurrence of blow-holes and recommend corresponding remedies to counter these defects by systematic imple-mentation of DMAIC cycle. Both preventive and corrective actions have been recommended to reduce the blowholes and overall improvement is validated through two-proportion test. Results of investigation demonstrated the net significant reduction of blowholes defect from 28,111 to 9,708 parts per million, which results in the net annual savings of INR 12,56,640.

The present work reports the retrospective investigation of force transducers widely used for force measurement related applications in variety of areas. The paper discusses the salient features of different types of force transducers along with their design and metrological features. The force transducers are covered from the analogue type to modern force transducers. The paper attempts to discuss the limitations of the different types of force transducers.

BRICS connotes five main emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are particularly distinguished as nations experiencing expanded market opportunities and countries discovered to be at stages of newly advanced economic development. This paper assesses the stock market development and economic growth in these BRICS nations. In doing this, quarterly time series data from 1994 to 2014 was sourced from World Bank Indicators. The Panel Generalized method based on the fixed effect estimation was employed to determine how stock market development affects the economic growth of BRICS. Diagnostic tests were conducted to ascertain the robustness and stability of the regression results after carrying out the unit root calculations. The findings reveal that stock market development exerts significant impact on the economic growth. The study further reveals that there was a positive correlation between stock market development indicators and BRICS’s economic growth. It is therefore proposed that the weaknesses of each of the BRICS member countries should be taken as policy focus and strategies necessary to strengthen them should be swiftly applied by their respective governments.

This paper aims to improve the ABC analysis method used for inventory management by applying the Pythagorean Fuzzy TODIM approach. ABC analysis is one the well-known and widely used inventory classification techniques which divides inventory items into three categories according to their importance and value. However, the traditional ABC analysis does not consider the imprecision and vagueness of real-world inventory data, which can lead to inaccurate results and poor inventory management decisions. The proposed approach enhances the traditional ABC analysis by incorporating fuzzy numbers to be considered in real-world inventory data. The improved ABC analysis helps companies to optimize inventory levels, reduce costs, improve customer service, and increase overall operational efficiency. To check for the reliability and effectiveness of the developed model under different scenarios sensitivity analysis is conducted. Additionally, the comparative analysis among other existing models further demonstrates the model's accuracy. The model prepared shows that the Pythagorean Fuzzy TODIM approach is superior to the conventional ABC analysis in terms of reliability and dealing with the uncertain inventory data. Overall, this paper provides a novel and effective approach to inventory management and offers valuable insights for practitioners and researchers in the field.

This study attempts to investigate whether Social Media Marketing Activity (SMMA) carried out by companies / brands have a positive impact on their brand equity, e-WOM distribution on social media and customers' purchase intention. The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of SMMA towards customers' purchase intention. The researchers tried to survey the results of previous studies to give more benefits to the readers and researchers in this area of study. Research data was collected using an online questionnaire survey of 114 participants of Instagram users in Indonesia. The results of structural equation modelling supported the current model’s validity and indicated a positive effect of SMMA towards brand equity. Moreover, brand equity had a positive impact on e-WOM; and e-WOM maintained a positive influence towards customers' purchase intention. Finally, SMMA also has showed a direct impact to customers' purchase intention.

This paper presents a novel composite material produced by a natural reinforcement subjected to tensile test. The used reinforcement is made of Diss fibers. The Diss (Ampelodesma mauritanica) is a Mediterranean wild plant. This fiber is characterized in tensile according to ASTM standard. The results obtained show that the fiber Young’s modulus and the stress at break were very interesting and were similar to those obtained for some natural fibers such as sisal fiber. The composite was developed to study by three differing volume fractions of 20%, 30 % and 40 %.

Planning is one of the most important components of gas industry production. Most big gas companies usually look for effective planning approaches to accomplish the organizational objectives including cost and time reduction as well as enhancing quality and efficiency. For planning gas refinery production, important parameters including production time, production volume, production cost and storage need to be considered. Planning different units ought to be integrated and coordinated with other departments. This article presents an intensive arithmetic model to determine the production of gas derivatives. The proposed model of this paper is formulated as a mixed integer programming and the resulted problem is solved using NSGA-II algorithm and a hybrid method called BBO/NSGA-II. The problem is also applied for a real-world case study and the results are discussed.

Measuring actual project progress and comparing it with the planned time schedule is essential in controlling of a project. The outcome of the latter follows the s-curve diagram, which compares actual progress with the planned amount and finally analyzing any gap between them to draw directions for project scheduling. However, final duration of the project cannot be either estimated or predicted through conventional methods. The new method, using Rules of kinematics, can calculate the final duration of the project. This novel approach is successfully implemented on a construction project. The first objective in new method is forecasting final duration of the project, finding equation path and draw a new s-curve diagram for actual status during the execution process. The second objective is to evaluate schedule performance of the project and report the status of the project at each period which is a useful tool for managers.