Providing a lean and agile supply chain model in project-based organizations

Purpose: One of the differences between project-oriented and routine organizations is the difference in their supply chain. This leads to the use of distinct and new approaches to its management. In this article, according to the existing problems, a conceptual model of lean and agile supply chain in project-oriented organizations is presented by examining the lean functions and agility of supply chain discussion. Research methodology: This research is descriptive-analytical in terms of method and applied in terms of purpose. This study's statistical population includes all managers and supply chain experts of project-based organizations and the statistical sample includes 105 people who have been selected using a purposive sampling method. After presenting the conceptual model, a researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect information and to examine the intended model, the structural equation approach with PLS software was used. Results: The research findings indicate that the 114 identified items for the research model significantly explain their related components. The results of the model fit study showed that based on the convergent validity indices, Cronbach's alpha and Cronbach's alpha, and the subscription validity index and the exponential or redundancy validity index, the model is in the desired condition. Limitation: This research only described Knowledge Based Centre. Contribution: Organizations realised that relying on existing knowledge alone was not enough to compete in a competitive environment, and went beyond the boundaries of their organization to acquire knowledge. Organizations considered customers as a very useful and knowledgeable resource, and activities should be done to interact with customers in leading organizations. Keywords: Customer assisted knowledge production capacity, Customer capital, Intellectual capital, Knowledge managemen

Query expansion based on relevance feedback and latent semantic analysis

Web search engines are one of the most popular tools on the Internet which are widely-used by expert and novice users. Constructing an adequate query which represents the best specification of users’ information need to the search engine is an important concern of web users. Query expansion is a way to reduce this concern and increase user satisfaction. In this paper, a new method of query expansion is introduced. This method which is a combination of relevance feedback and latent semantic analysis, finds the relative terms to the topics of user original query based on relevant documents selected by the user in relevance feedback step. The method is evaluated and compared with the Rocchio relevance feedback. The results of this evaluation indicate the capability of the method to better representation of user’s information need and increasing significantly user satisfaction

Effects of Salicylic Acid and Glycine Betaine on Gas Exchanges, Proline content and Yield of Potato Cultivars under Water Stress Conditions

This investigation was aimed to study the response of potato plants to water deficit and exogenous application of salicylic acid (SA) and glycine betaine (GB). Potato cultivars, Spirit, Born, Arinda and Banba were experienced under two irrigation regimes, 30 and 60 % depletion of available soil water, and two concentrations of both SA (0.5 and 1.0 mM) and GB (1.0 and 2.0 mM) additionally the control (0.0 mM SA and GB). Gas exchanges, proline content (Pro), root volume (RV), root/shoot ratio (R/S), plant dry mass (PDM), number tuber (NT) and yield of potato cultivars were measured. With the exception of R/S, water deficit led to notable decreases in gas exchanges, RV, PDM, NT and yield of potato cultivars and increases in Pro content. Foliar application of SA and GB resulted in significant increases in photosynthesis (Photo), carbon dioxide concentration in the sub-stomatal chamber (Ci), stomatal conductance (Gs), Pro, PDM and yield in some levels of SA and GB; the level of the increases appeared more when potato plants were grown under water deficit conditions. All the overhead effects supported PDM and yield of potato cultivars to increase by exogenous application of SA and GB and directed to the assumption that water deficit converted harmful effects on potato cultivars could be released by exogenous applied SA and GB

Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials are composed of thin layers that may have a thickness of at least one atomic layer. Contrary to bulk materials, these nanomaterials have a high aspect ratio (surface-area-to-volume ratio) and therefore have many atoms on their surface. These atoms have a different function than internal atoms, and so the increase in the number of surface atoms leads to a change in the behavior of 2D nanomaterials. Graphene, as one of the most widely used and most important 2D materials, has unique properties that result in its widespread use in various industries. After successful performance of graphene in many applications and industry, it is expected that other two-dimensional materials will also have this capability. However, the use of other two-dimensional materials requires more time and effort

A New Spectrophotometric Method for Determination of Selenium in Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical Preparations after Preconcentration with Cloud Point Extraction

A simple, rapid, and sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of trace amounts of selenium (IV) was described. In this method, all selenium spices reduced to selenium (IV) using 6 M HCl. Cloud point extraction was applied as a preconcentration method for spectrophotometric determination of selenium (IV) in aqueous solution. The proposed method is based on the complexation of Selenium (IV) with dithizone at pH < 1 in micellar medium (Triton X-100). After complexation with dithizone, the analyte was quantitatively extracted to the surfactant-rich phase by centrifugation and diluted to 5 mL with methanol. Since the absorption maxima of the complex (424 nm) and dithizone (434 nm) overlap, hence, the corrected absorbance, Acorr, was used to overcome the problem. With regard to the preconcentration, the tested parameters were the pH of the extraction, the concentration of the surfactant, the concentration of dithizone, and equilibration temperature and time. The detection limit is 4.4 ng mL−1; the relative standard deviation for six replicate measurements is 2.18% for 50 ng mL−1 of selenium. The procedure was applied successfully to the determination of selenium in two kinds of pharmaceutical samples

Effect of three water-regimes on morpho-physiological, biochemical and yield responses of local and foreign olive cultivars under field conditions

Drought stress is among the most serious threats jeopardizing the economic yield of crop plants in Iran. In particular, in response to withholding irrigation, the reduction in performance and quality of a precious plant such as the olive tree is remarkable. Therefore, the selection of cultivars that are resistant or tolerant to drought has been recognized as one of the most effective long-term strategies for sustainably alleviating the adverse effects of this stress. In this view, our study evaluated the response of 8 olive cultivars including 4 elite native cultivars (Zard Aliabad, Roughani, Dezful, and Shengeh) and 4 foreign cultivars (Manzanilla, Sevillana, Konservolia, and Mission) to water shortage in the Dallaho Olive Research station of Sarpole-Zahab in Kermanshah province in 2020. Olive trees underwent 3 levels of irrigation treatment including 100% full irrigation (control), 75%, and 50% deficit irrigation

Differential Growth Responses of Wheat Seedlings to Elevated CO2

Intraspecific variations in wheat growth responses to elevated CO2 was evaluated using 20 Iranian bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars. The plants were grown in the modified Hoagland nutrient solution at a greenhouse until 35 days of age using two levels of CO2 (~380 and 700 µmol mol–1). The shoot and root dry weights of the wheat cultivars exhibited average enhancements of 17% and 36%, respectively, under elevated CO2. This increase was associated with higher levels of chlorophyll a (25%), chlorophyll b (21%), carotenoid (30%), leaf area (54%) and plant height (49.9%). The leaf area (r = 0.69**), shoot N content (r = 0.62**), plant height (r = 0.60**) and root volume (r = 0.53*) were found to have important roles in dry matter accumulation of tested wheat cultivars under elevated CO2 concentration. However, responses to elevated CO2 were considerably cultivar-dependent. Based on the stress susceptibility index (SSI) and stress tolerance index (STI), the wheat cultivars exhibiting the best response to elevated CO2 content were ‘Sistan’, ‘Navid’, ‘Shiraz’, ‘Sepahan’ and ‘Bahar’, while the ones with poor responses were ‘Omid’, ‘Marun’, ‘Sorkhtokhm’ and ‘Tajan’. The findings from the present experiment showed significant variation among the Iranian wheat cultivars in terms of their responses to elevated air CO2, providing the opportunity to select the most efficient ones for breeding purposes