Terrestrial isopods of the family Eubelidae Budde-Lund, 1899 from Iran, with description of a new species (Isopoda, Oniscidea)

In the present work, terrestrial isopods of the family Eubelidae are investigated in Iran. The genera Periscyphis and Somalodillo are reported for the first time. More localities are presented for Koweitoniscus tamei (Omer-Cooper, 1923) while K. shafieii Kashani, sp. n. is described and figured. A map indicating the sampling localities for the species is presented

Mechanical Properties of Boehmite Evaluated by Atomic Force Microscopy Experiments and Molecular Dynamic Finite Element Simulations

Boehmite nanoparticles show great potential in improving mechanical properties of fiber reinforced polymers. In order to predict the properties of nanocomposites, knowledge about the material parameters of the constituent phases, including the boehmite particles, is crucial. In this study, the mechanical behavior of boehmite is investigated using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) experiments and Molecular Dynamic Finite Element Method (MDFEM) simulations. Young's modulus of the perfect crystalline boehmite nanoparticles is derived from numerical AFM simulations. Results of AFM experiments on boehmite nanoparticles deviate significantly. Possible causes are identified by experiments on complementary types of boehmite, that is, geological and hydrothermally synthesized samples, and further simulations of imperfect crystals and combined boehmite/epoxymodels. Under certain circumstances, the mechanical behavior of boehmite was found to be dominated by inelastic effects that are discussed in detail in the present work. The studies are substantiated with accompanying X-ray diffraction and Raman experiments.DFG/FOR/202

Juxta Cortical Tibia Metastatic Deposition in Gastric Cancer: A Case Report

We report a 41 years old man with rapidly growing and tender lump on the anteromedial surface of tibia. The patient had the history of gastrectomy and gastrojejunostomy due to gastric carcinoma. On admission, the Simple X-ray of lower extremity disclosed a slight thinning of the anterior cortex of tibia without cortical destruction. The whole-body bone scan with 99mTC MDP revealed activity of lesion in all 3 phases. The histopathological evaluation showed an infiltration of bone with tumor cells. Review No the literature revealed in previous cases of skeletal metastasis from gastric cancer in the tibia like this

Developing a new approach for evaluation of business processes in a fuzzy environment

Evaluation of business processes plays a significant role in business development and improvement. Therefore, organizations need a systematic approach to evaluate all the changes through robust and powerful techniques that can formulate the relationship between the available information and the degree of the inherent uncertainty. In this paper, a set of operational variables are defined. Then, the SPSS software package is utilized to validate the gathered data. After that, the variables are categorized by the use of a clustering technique. Finally, five major factors are determined as the most effective components. According to the inherent uncertainty involved in the process of modelling, fuzzy set theory, a powerful mathematical tool is applied to handle the vagueness. In order to construct a knowledge base based on the fuzzy set theory, the linguistic concepts for each variable are defined. Lastly, membership functions are described and a set of fuzzy rules based on input-output parameters are written in MATLAB software environment. To demonstrate the potential application of the proposed approach, a real case study is illustrated. The results reflect the capability and effectiveness of the approach proposed in this paper. First published online: 23 Nov 201

Improving PLS-SEM use for business marketing research

A review of studies published in Industrial Marketing Management over the past two decades and more shows that these studies not only used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) widely to estimate and empirically substantiate theoretically established models with constructs, but did so increasingly. In line with their study goals, researchers provided reasons for using PLS-SEM (e.g., model complexity, limited sample size, and prediction). These reasons are frequently not fully convincing, requiring further clarification. Additionally, our review reveals that researchers' assessment and reporting of their measurement and structural models are insufficient. Certain tests and thresholds that they use are also inappropriate. Finally, researchers seldom apply more advanced PLS-SEM analytic techniques, although these can support the results' robustness and may create new insights. This paper addresses the issues by reviewing business marketing studies to clarify PLS-SEM's appropriate use. Furthermore, the paper provides researchers and practitioners in the business marketing field with a best practice orientation and describes new opportunities for using PLS-SEM. To this end, the paper offers guidelines and checklists to support future PLS-SEM applications

Positive solutions for a class of infinite semipositone problems involving the p-Laplacian operator

We discuss the existence of a positive solution to a given infinite semipositone problem