A Method for Solving a Class of Multiple-Criteria Analysis Problems

AMS subject classification: 90C29.The paper proposes an interactive method solving the multiple criteria choice problem (MCCP) with a large number of discrete alternatives and a small number of quantitative criteria. The decision maker (DM) sets his preferences in terms of desired directions of improving or relaxing of the criteria. On this base the so called reference cone is constructed. A small subset of relatively closed alternatives is defined according to this cone and to the maximal deterioration of the criteria values at each iteration. This subset is evaluated by the DM, who selects the most preferred alternative or enters his/her new preferences. The method suggested has user-friendly dialog. It enables the DM to explore the set of alternatives comparatively quickly and easy. The method is included in a DSS. It is tested by a number of real multiple criteria choice problems

A Sustainable Multi-objective Optimization Model for Design of Supply Chain Under Uncertain Products Demands and Products Prices: a Real Case of Dairy Industry

Dairy production has a significant environmental impact related with wastewater and air pollution. In addition, it is a large consumer of water and energy. The most effective way to improve its sustainability is through analysis of the food-water-energy nexus, which can be done by optimizing all activities in the supply chain (SC) from the raw materials to the end user while meeting environmental, economic and social criteria. However, the presence of uncertainties regarding the main parameters of the SC would lead to problems related to the implementation of processes and the operating the system as a whole. To solve these problems an implementation of models for optimal design of dairy SCs that handle these uncertainties is needed. The present study proposes an extended version of already developed mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) approach to optimal design of a sustainable SC for the production of different dairy products according different recipes under uncertain products demands and products prices. The model has taken into account economic, environmental and social aspects. The obtained results show that the increase in the uncertainty level leads to an increase of values of economic, environmental and social costs as well as the profit, with the standard deviation of the same being the highest at the lowest level of uncertainty, while at the others it is preserved relatively constant. The number of workers employed by the supply centers, dairies and markets is kept constant regardless of the variation in the level of uncertainty of products demands and products prices

Low temperature electrical transport in microwave plasma fabricated free-standing graphene and N-graphene sheets

Funding Information: This work was performed under the framework of the PEGASUS (Plasma Enabled and Graphene Allowed Synthesis of Unique nano-Structures) project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon research and innovation program under grant agreement No 766894. Work partially funded by Portuguese FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, through EAGER project (PTDC/NAN-MAT/30565/2017) and under projects UIDB/50010/2020 and UIDP/50010/2020. The authors would like to thank S. Russev for the SEM images. M A, E V, K K and Zh K thank the European Regional Development Fund within the Operational Programme ‘Science and Education for Smart Growth 2014–2020’ under the Project CoE ‘National center of mechatronics and clean technologies ‘BG05M2OP001-1.001-0008’. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.In this paper, the electrical transport in free-standing graphene and N-graphene sheets fabricated by a microwave plasma-based method is addressed. Temperature-dependent resistivity/conductivity measurements are performed on the graphene/N-graphene sheets compressed in pellets. Different measurement configurations reveal directional dependence of current flow—the room-temperature conductivity longitudinal to the pellet’s plane is an order of magnitude higher than the transversal one, due to the preferential orientation of graphene sheets in the pellets. SEM imaging confirms that the graphene sheets are mostly oriented parallel to the pellet’s plane and stacked in agglomerates. The high longitudinal electrical conductivity with values on the order of 103 S/m should be noted. Further, the current flow mechanism revealed from resistivity-temperature dependences from 300K down to 10K shows non-metallic behavior manifested with an increasing resistivity with decreasing the temperature d ρ / d T < 0 usually observed for insulating or localized systems. The observed charge transport shows variable range hopping at lower temperatures and thermally activated behaviour at higher temperatures. This allows us to attribute the charge transport mechanism to a partially disordered system in which single graphene sheets are placed predominantly parallel to each other and stacked together.publishersversionpublishe

Robust Optimization of Sustainable Dairy Supply Chain with Products Demands Uncertainty and Environmental Impact Consideration

Milk and milk products are an important part of the daily menu of millions of people around the world. Increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of this type of production is related to the implementation of the strategy of sustainable management of supply chains, which cover all processes from raw materials, through production to end users. The presence of fluctuations in the product demands on the markets also influences the sustainable operation of considered supply chain activities. The present study proposes an application of already developed robust optimization approach for optimal design of a sustainable dairy supply chain operating under uncertain products demands on a new case study from Bulgaria which include three milk suppliers, two dairies and three markets. The considered supply chain is related with a production of different dairy products according to different recipes while satisfying environmental and economic criteria defined in terms of costs. The latter is associated with the generated wastewater from dairy production and CO2 emissions due to the energy consumed and transportation. Several optimization problems have been formulated and solved under nominal data for the product demands and four uncertainties levels - 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1. The obtained optimal values of the economic and environmental costs show that the optimization approach implementation results in sustainable solutions that do not change significantly with an increase in the uncertainty level of consideration of the product demands

New remarks on the linear constraint self-dual boson and Wess-Zumino terms

In this work we prove in a precise way that the soldering formalism can be applied to the Srivastava chiral boson (SCB), in contradiction with some results appearing in the literature. We have promoted a canonical transformation that shows directly that the SCB is composed of two Floreanini-Jackiw's particles with the same chirality which spectrum is a vacuum-like one. As another conflictive result we have proved that a Wess-Zumino term used in the literature consists of the scalar field, once again denying the assertion that the WZ term adds a new degree of freedom to the SCB theory in order to modify the physics of the system.Comment: 6 pages, Revtex. Final version to appear in Physical Review

Experimental study of the effect of local atomic ordering on the energy band gap of melt grown InGaAsN alloys

We present a study of melt grown dilute nitride InGaAsN layers by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The purpose of the study is to determine the degree of atomic ordering in the quaternary alloy during the epitaxial growth at near thermodynamic equilibrium conditions and its influence on band gap formation. Despite the low In concentration (~3%) the XPS data show a strong preference toward In–N bonding configuration in the InGaAsN samples. Raman spectra reveal that most of the N atoms are bonded to In instead of Ga atoms and the formation of N-centred In3Ga1 clusters. PL measurements reveal smaller optical band gap bowing as compared to the theoretical predictions for random alloy and localised tail states near the conduction band minimum

Spin physics with antiprotons

New possibilities arising from the availability at GSI of antiproton beams, possibly polarised, are discussed. The investigation of the nucleon structure can be boosted by accessing in Drell-Yan processes experimental asymmetries related to cross-sections in which the parton distribution functions (PDF) only appear, without any contribution from fragmentation functions; such processes are not affected by the chiral suppression of the transversity function $h_1(x)$. Spin asymmetries in hyperon production and Single Spin Asymmetries are discussed as well, together with further items like electric and magnetic nucleonic form factors and open charm production. Counting rates estimations are provided for each physical case. The sketch of a possible experimental apparatus is proposed.Comment: Presented for the proceedings of ASI "Spin and Symmetry", Prague, July 5-10, 2004, to be published in Czech. J. Phys. 55 (2005

Neurotensin(8–13) analogs as dual NTS1 and NTS2 receptor ligands with enhanced effects on a mouse model of Parkinson's disease

: The modulatory interactions between neurotensin (NT) and the dopaminergic neurotransmitter system in the brain suggest that NT may be associated with the progression of Parkinson's disease (PD). NT exerts its neurophysiological effects by interactions with the human NT receptors type 1 (hNTS1) and 2 (hNTS2). Therefore, both receptor subtypes are promising targets for the development of novel NT-based analogs for the treatment of PD. In this study, we used a virtually guided molecular modeling approach to predict the activity of NT(8-13) analogs by investigating the docking models of ligands designed for binding to the human NTS1 and NTS2 receptors. The importance of the residues at positions 8 and/or 9 for hNTS1 and hNTS2 receptor binding affinity was experimentally confirmed by radioligand binding assays. Further in vitro ADME profiling and in vivo studies revealed that, compared to the parent peptide NT(8-13), compound 10 exhibited improved stability and BBB permeability combined with a significant enhancement of the motor function and memory in a mouse model of PD. The herein reported NTS1/NTS2 dual-specific NT(8-13) analogs represent an attractive tool for the development of therapeutic strategies against PD and potentially other CNS disorders

Hamilton-Jacobi treatment of a non-relativistic particle on a curved space

In this paper a non-relativistic particle moving on a hypersurface in a curved space and the multidimensional rotator are investigated using the Hamilton-Jacobi formalism. The equivalence with the Dirac Hamiltonian formalism is demonstrated in both Cartesian and curvilinear coordinates. The energy spectrum of the multidimensional rotator is equal to that of a pure Laplace-Beltrami operator with no additional constant arising from the curvature of the sphere.Comment: 10 pages, LaTe

Lycopene: total-scale literature landscape analysis of a valuable nutraceutical with numerous potential applications in the promotion of human and animal health

Lycopene intake from tomatoes and other food sources has multiple potential health benefits. This report aimed to evaluate the current research literature on lycopene concerning human and animal health. The electronic Web of Science Core Collection database was searched with (lycopene*) AND (health* OR illness* OR disease* OR medic* OR pharma* OR drug* OR therap*). The resulted 3972 papers were analyzed with the aid of bibliometric software. Besides the United States, the lycopene papers received global contributions, particularly from China, Italy, India, and Spain. Examples of frequently mentioned chemicals/chemical classes were carotenoid, beta carotene, alpha carotene, beta cryptoxanthin, and alpha tocopherol. Examples of frequently mentioned medical conditions were prostate cancer, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Published scientific articles reveal the diverse potential of lycopene in prompting human and animal health, and the knowledge on the bioactivities of this phytoche(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio