FUZZY MULTIPLE CRITERIA GROUP DECISION-MAKING IN PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

Today's market competition requires constant improvement of manufacturing companies. The primary key to sustainable improvement is evaluating the efficiency of manufacturing processes, which inevitably demands access to thorough and comprehensive information. However, due to the multiple numbers of effective factors that are varied in nature and value, it is impossible to identify certain factors that ensure the efficiency of a manufacturing procedure. As a solution, this paper proposes a novel approach that applies fuzzy TOPSIS. This approach provides the flexibility of evaluating multiple and varied factors of different weights in scrutinizing the efficiency of a manufacturer. The proposed approach has been applied to three different manufacturers (i.e., alternatives) in three steps. In the first step, with reference to the related literature and comments of manufacturing experts, the valuable factors (i.e., the criteria) have been selected to which experts specified linguistic terms. Linguistic terms were then converted to fuzzy numbers. Fuzzy TOPSIS was applied to analyze the efficiency performance of manufacturers. In the last step, to determine the impact of criteria weights on the decision-making process, sensitivity analysis was carried out. The findings confirm the implacability of the proposed approach to manufacturing performances in a consolidated manner. The approach can be employed by marketing managers, senior administrators, and other authorities in the manufacturing and business sectors

Novel Biological Strategies for Phosphorus Recovery from Wastewater

This thesis proposed simple strategies for Phosphorus (P) recovery that are adoptable and potentially retro-fittable to the majority of conventional wastewater treatment systems. For this purpose, the potential of some of the alternative available treatment methods to incorporate P recovery was studied. The four experimental chapters examined strategies to recover influent P as a concentrated P-liquor. It was clearly demonstrated that the granular sludge is promising technology that provides a unique opportunity for P recovery

Measuring the burden of treatment for chronic disease: implications of a scoping review of the literature

Background: Although there has been growing research on the burden of treatment, the current state of evidence on measuring this concept is unknown. This scoping review aimed to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge as well as clear recommendations for future research, within the context of chronic disease. Methods: Four health-based databases, Scopus, CINAHL, Medline, and PsychInfo, were comprehensively searched for peer-reviewed articles published between the periods of 2000–2016. Titles and abstracts were independently read by two authors. All discrepancies between the authors were resolved by a third author. Data was extracted using a standardized proforma and a comparison analysis was used in order to explore the key treatment burden measures and categorize them into three groups. Results: Database searching identified 1458 potential papers. After removal of duplications, and irrelevant articles by title, 1102 abstracts remained. An additional 22 papers were added via snowball searching. In the end, 101 full papers were included in the review. A large number of the studies involved quantitative measures and conceptualizations of treatment burden (n = 64; 63.4%), and were conducted in North America (n = 49; 48.5%). There was significant variation in how the treatment burden experienced by those with chronic disease was operationalized and measured. Conclusion: Despite significant work, there is still much ground to cover to comprehensively measure treatment burden for chronic disease. Greater qualitative focus, more research with cultural and minority populations, a larger emphasis on longitudinal studies and the consideration of the potential effects of “identity” on treatment burden, should be considered

COMPUTATION OF ANKLE TORQUE IN DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF LANDING BY DYNAMIC MODELING

Ankle joint injury often occurs in sports. The purpose of this study was to compute ankle torque under different strategies of landing using human body movement simulation during landing for males and females. Kinematic and kinetic data were given to model and ankle torque under three strategies of landing was computed. Results showed that in first strategy there was a minimum value of peak ankle torque for both males and females. In second and third strategies by increasing plantar flexion of ankle, peak ankle torque was increased for both males and females. Results were in agreement with previous experimental investigations

Physiologic Effects of Intra-nasal Sedation with Midazolam and Ketamine in 3-6 Years old Uncooperative Children

Objective: Several medications have been used for sedation in children in dentistry and intra-nasal route has been reported to be an efficient way regarding patient cooperation. The aim of the present study was to compare the changes in physiologic parameters following intra-nasal midazolam and ketamine administration.Methods: In this randomized cross-over double-blind trial, 17 uncooperative 3-6 years old children requiring at least two dental treatments were selected randomly and received intra-nasal ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) and midazolam (0.2 mg/kg) prior to the treatment using the other drug in the next visit. Physiologic parameters including blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate and O2 saturation were measured and compared during the different time intervals using two way repeated measure ANOVA.Results: The patients showed higher blood pressure and heart rate following ketamine administration compared to midazolam (p<0.001). No significant difference was found between the drugs at different time intervals regarding respiratory rate and O2 saturation. (p>0.05)Conclusion: In spite of significant differences between midazolam and ketamine regarding heart rateand blood pressure, both drugs can b e used as effective sedative medications without treatment interruption in children

Nanoporous Polyether Sulfone Membrane, Preparation and Characterization: Effect of Porosity and Mean Pore Size on Performance

Flat sheet membranes were prepared by phase inversion technique using polyether sulfone (PES) dissolved in dimethylacetamide (DMAc) with and without adding polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) or polyethyleneglycol (PEG). The characteristics of the prepared membranes were evaluated using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and Optical Contact Angle (OCA) measurements, and porosity tests. The porosity test and SEM images show that increasing additives to a certain value increases the porosity of the membrane. Also, as the coagulation bath temperature is increased, the porosity of the membrane is increased. The roughness of the membrane is increased by increasing the additive concentration. The analysis of AFM images confirms the nanoporous structure of the prepared membranes, and that the membranes with appropriate pore size distribution can be prepared by the applied method. Permeability tests using single-layer membranes show that the direct relationship between porosity and the flux of pure water or salt solution is dominated by the effect of applied additive while the salt rejection shows an inverse relationship with the mean pore size regardless of the applied additive. The salt permeation flux is a function of total porosity while the salt rejection is a function of surface porosity. Pervaporation tests show that both permeation flux and enrichment factor depend on the total porosity of the support membrane

Novel mutations of PCCA and PCCB genes found by whole-exome sequencing related to propionic acidemia patients

Propionic acidemia (PROP) is an autosomal recessive inherited metabolic deficiency caused by multimeric mitochondrial enzyme propionyl‐coenzyme A (CoA) carboxylase (PCC). PCC enzyme contains a and b subunits, encoded by the PCCA and PCCB genes that mutations in both subunits are related to propionic acidemia. About 50% of disease-causing variants have been found in PCCA and most mutations related to propionic acidemia are missense mutations. The present study involves three families that are suspicious to hereditary propionic acidemia syndrome. The first family has four, the second family has one, and the third family has two passed-away children. All these families were diagnosed with the same clinical conditions such as poor feeding, vomiting, hypotonia, and lethargy. In the process of finding and confirming the mutation, pathological tests and whole-exome sequencing and sanger sequencing were done. In order to pathological tests and whole-exome sequencing, this is the first report of three novel variants related to propionic acidemia: 1. Novel pathogenic homozygous NM_000532.5: c.503_505del: p.Glu168del mutation of the PCCB exon5 gene, 2. Novel pathogenic homozygous splicing NM_000282:c.1900- 1G>A mutation of PCCA exon22 and exon21, 3. Novel compound heterozygous pathogenic NM_000532.5: c.503_505del: p.Glu168del and likely pathogenic NM_000532.5:c.539T>C: P.F180S mutation of the PCCB exon5 gene. The study shows that PCCA and PCCB have a great role in hereditary propionic acidemia and the results of the present study may be of importance in genetic counseling and finding the best treatment of this syndrome. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.737427

Wound Healing Potential of Chlorogenic Acid and Myricetin-3-O-β-Rhamnoside Isolated from Parrotia persica

Wound healing is a complex physiological process that is controlled by a well-orchestrated cascade of interdependent biochemical and cellular events, which has spurred the development of therapeutics that simultaneously target these active cellular constituents. We assessed the potential of Parrotia persica (Hamamelidaceae) in wound repair by analyzing the regenerative effects of its two main phenolic compounds, myricetin-3-O-β-rhamnoside and chlorogenic acid. To accomplish this, we performed phytochemical profiling and characterized the chemical structure of pure compounds isolated from P. persica, followed by an analysis of the biological effects of myricetin-3-O-β-rhamnoside and chlorogenic acid on three cell types, including keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells. Myricetin-3-O-β-rhamnoside and chlorogenic acid exhibited complementary pro-healing properties. The percentage of keratinocyte wound closure as measured by a scratch assay was four fold faster in the presence of 10 µg/mL chlorogenic acid, as compared to the negative control. On the other hand, myricetin-3-O-β-rhamnoside at 10 µg/mL was more effective in promoting fibroblast migration, demonstrating a two-fold higher rate of closure compared to the negative control group. Both compounds enhanced the capillary-like tube formation of endothelial cells in an in vitro angiogenesis assay. Our results altogether delineate the potential to synergistically accelerate the fibroblastic and remodelling phases of wound repair by administering appropriate amounts of myricetin-3-O-β-rhamnoside and chlorogenic acid