Selecting an Appropriate Express Railway Pavement System Using VIKOR Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model

A gigantic evolution has been brought about in the railway transportation by the emergence of the expressways as the most efficient method of carrying passengers within short and medium interurban distances. Various types of expressway pavements have been offered during the recent years. A considerable amount of the repair and maintenance costs in railroad sector is allocated to the constituents forming the pavements. No thorough and precise research has been so far conducted on the railroad expressways featuring traffics with speeds over 250 km/h and the extant information have merely been trivial changes in the procedures existent for speeds below 200 km/h and these are not deemed of much use and applicability. Thus, the current research paper is devoted to the investigation and selection of express railways pavement system design using VIKOR method. The evaluations indicate that the commencement of the first high-speed train work in 1964 in Japan marked a turning point in the railroad passenger transportation in the world. The development of the high-speed railway transportation is enumerated as an important revolution helping the railroads retake their crucial role in passenger transportation in such a way that it is found overtaking the roadway and aerial transportation and even exposing some airlines to real crisis. The high-speed railroad is undergoing an intensive expansion worldwide and as a safe, sound and sustainable transportation system, it has well proved its role in the social and economic development of the nations

The effect of Nifedipine on embryo transfer outcomes: A randomized clinical trial

Background: Endometrial receptivity is crucial for embryo implantation, and excessive uterine contraction reduces success. Nifedipine which is a calcium channel blocker, could decrease uterine contraction and improve pregnancy outcomes. Objective: This study aimed to assess the effect of Nifedipine before embryo transfer on the pregnancy outcome in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) in a tertiary center in Iran. Materials and Methods: 150 women who were candidates for IVF were randomly assigned into 2 groups: group 1 received 20 mg Nifedipine 30 min before embryo transfer, and group 2 received no intervention. Blood pressure of the participants was monitored every 10 min for 1 hr under the supervision of an anesthesiologist. Finally, implantation rate and chemical and clinical pregnancy rates were compared between groups. Results: At the end of the study, 140 participants were included in the final analyses. No significant difference was observed in clinical pregnancy rates between groups (20% vs. 22%, p = 0.51) Conclusion: Nifedipine administration before embryo transfer does not improve the implantation and clinical pregnancy rates in women undergoing IVF. Key words: Nifedipine, In vitro fertilization, Uterus, Contraction

Using Genetic Algorithm in Solving Stochastic Programming for Multi-Objective Portfolio Selection in Tehran Stock Exchange

Investor decision making has always been affected by two factors: risk and returns. Considering risk, the investor expects an acceptable return on the investment decision horizon. Accordingly, defining goals and constraints for each investor can have unique prioritization. This paper develops several approaches to multi criteria portfolio optimization. The maximization of stock returns, the power of liquidity of selected stocks and the acceptance of risk to market risk are set as objectives of the problem. In order to solve the problem of information in the Tehran Stock Exchange in 2017, 45 sample stocks have been identified and, with the assumption of normalization of goals, a genetic algorithm has been used. The results show that the selected model provides a good performance for selecting the optimal portfolio for investors with specific goals and constraints

Comparison of Preventive Acetaminophen and Placebo in Pain Reduction After Cesarean Section; A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background: In subjects having a cesarean section, pain can increase hospital length of stay and postoperative complications. The preventive analgesia in the postoperative phase is known to be more effective than analgesic treatment in response to pain. Objectives: In this study, the analgesic efficacy of preventive intravenous acetaminophen was compared with placebo in relieving postoperative pain after cesarean sections under spinal anesthesia. Methods: In this double-blind randomized controlled study, 49 women undergoing elective cesarean section under spinal anesthesia were randomly allocated into two groups by block randomization in a referral hospital in Tehran in 2016. The intervention group received intravenous acetaminophen (Apotel®) (1 gram) and the placebo group received normal saline on arrival to the recovery room within 20 minutes. Then the total consumed doses of meperidine, visual analogue scale (VAS) score of pain, and the incidence of vomiting were determined and recorded for 24 hours postoperatively. Results: Pain scores (VAS) were lower in the acetaminophen group throughout the study, but the difference was only significant at forth to eighth hours after the surgery (P = 0.0001). The total consumed doses of meperidine to treat the pain was significantly lower in the acetaminophen group at the fourth to the eighth hours after the surgery (P = 0.0001). The incidence of vomiting was the same between the groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions: A single dose preventive intravenous acetaminophen has good efficacy in reduction of postoperative pain and reduces opioid use after cesarean sections under spinal anesthesia up to 8 hours after the administration

Identification of Factors Affecting Personal Branding in Cyberspace in the Field of Speech

Previous research has shown that the path to personal branding is not always smooth, and there are many failed examples that demonstrate that they did not do their personal branding correctly and did not consider all aspects of the work. This issue was investigated in this study, and the factors influencing personal branding in cyberspace were identified. To achieve the objectives, two phases of data collection were carried out: a qualitative phase and a quantitative phase. During the qualitative phase, in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 experts in the fields of personal branding and cyberspace, and 39 indicators affecting personal branding in cyberspace were extracted using the content analysis method. Then, in a quantitative phase, a researcher-created questionnaire was developed based on the qualitative phase's indicators, and 392 respondents were provided. The extracted indicators were then reduced in the form of 9 components affecting personal branding in cyberspace and introduced as factors affecting personal branding in cyberspace using exploratory factor analysis. These are the nine components: self-identification and self-values, trust building, a distinct and charismatic personality, self-description, developing knowledge, endurance, attracting opportunities, paying attention to the environment, and originality

A Fuzzy Goal-Programming Model for Optimization of Sustainable Supply Chain by Focusing on the Environmental and Economic Costs and Revenue: A Case Study

Sustainable supply chain has become an integral part of the corporate strategy. In this paper, a real case study of the natural gas supply chain has been investigated. Using concepts related to natural gas industry and the relations among the compo-nents of gas and oil wells, refineries, storage tanks, dispatching, transmission and distribution network, a seven-level supply chain has been introduced and present-ed schematically. The aim of this paper is to optimize a case study using a fuzzy goal-programming multi-period model considering environmental and economic costs and revenue as fuzzy goals and maximize the total degree of satisfaction of goals as objective function. A small-sized problem was solved using GAMS 23.2.1 software and sensitivity analysis was conducted on its parameters. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that presents a fuzzy goal program-ming model for the optimization of sustainable natural gas supply chain by focus-ing on the environmental and economic costs and total revenue of gas products and the other main contribution of this research is focused to the developing of the mentioned model

Improving European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model for implementation in Iranian SMEs

EFQM excellence model is a world-class quality management framework which is applied as the basis of excellence awards in 26 countries all over the world. Among others, Iranian National Productivity and Business Excellence Award has implemented the EFQM model as the official excellence model since 2003. The implementation of EFQM excellence model, through the national excellence award, is considered as a strategy that is applied by the Iranian manufacturing SMEs to unravel many of their problems. Despite, the number of successful implementations has been too low even after several years of EFQM implementation in the Iranian SMEs. Besides, official research also indicates that about 40 percent of the failures in SMEs have occurred due to their weaknesses in internal operations which can be improved through proper implementation of the EFQM model

How Does Service Quality Lead to Loyalty in the Hotel Industry in Iran

Abstract: This is a fact that loyal customers not only use the services of the hotel frequently but also suggest the services to other potential clients. It is obvious that loyal customers can guarantee the life of the business in the hotel industry. The theoretical background of the loyalty in the hotel industry indicates that loyalty is a consequence of hotel service quality. The main purpose of this study is to investigate how the service quality ends in loyalty in hotel industry in Iran. Review on the literature revealed that there are some factors between service quality and loyalty. In other words, high service quality can enhance the perceived value and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, this is the satisfaction that increases the loyalty of the clients. This study considers five dimensions of SERVQUAL instrument as factors of service quality in hotel industry which have been applied in similar research successfully. The hypotheses are tested with a convenience data collection approach using data from clients of four Iranian hotels. Findings indicated that some service quality dimensions significantly affect the perceived value. Furthermore, dimensions of service quality and also the perceived value directly influence satisfaction. Finally, satisfaction significantly enhances the loyalty

Identifying relationships among components of logistic relief assessment in the humanitarian supply chain with fuzzy DEMATEL approach

The humanitarian relief supply chain and rescue in disasters is critical crisis management to save lives, take injured bodies to emergency facilities, remove homeless people and their belongings from destroyed areas supply necessities of people in calamities. The purpose of this research is to present a model to identify associations between logistic components of relief and rescue in crisis upon happening a likely earthquake in Tehran. Initially upon the literature review and evaluation of theoretical foundations, we identified the dimensions and logistic parameters of relief rescue following the opinion of experts and adopting fuzzy screening method. The statistical population consisted of twenty relief rescue logistics experts and professors predominant in these topics. Fuzzy pairwise comparison questionnaires were distributed among experts once dimensions and logistic parameters of relief and rescue were identified. The face validity and reliability of questionnaire were evaluated and confirmed respectively by opinion of experts and use of Gogoous-Boucher method. Dimensional investigation by analysis of fuzzy decision making trial and evaluation laboratory revealed that water and food supply, and providing medical services have greatest influence, whilst removing and sheltering homeless people Incident comes with the highest susceptibility. In the study of indicators, strengthening of residential, office, educational and medical buildings, emergency housing, provision of quality drinking water and the use of modern logistics and relief technologies (rescue set; robots; dogs Rescue ...), the most effective and resilience of power plants, refineries, power transmission lines, oil, gas and sewage arteries, search and rescue of the missing, providing quality food and arrival Relief aid is most effective in the shortest possible time.  The results can give a full mentality of crisis management to understand the logistic components of relief and rescue