In this article, magnetically nanoparticles (MNPs) of CuFe2O4 were prepared and characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy techniques. Super paramagnetic CuFe2O4 was used as an efficient catalyst for green formylation of structurally diverse alcohols to the corresponding formyl esters using formic acid as a solvent (60-70 °C). All reactions were carried out successfully within 1-120 min to afford the products in 76-96 % yields. Reusibility of CuFe2O4 MNPs was examined 5 times without significant loss of its catalytic activity.

Monitoring productivity of economic sections of a country would be an important step towards a reliable planning. Developmental decisions based on weaknesses and strengths will guarantee effectiveness, since it will lead to an effective allocation of resources. Among performance measurement approaches, the Data envelopment analysis (DEA), is a model that measures and reports excesses and deficits via analyzing input and output aspects. Aid of this exact and dis-criminating measurement, a proper DEA model applied in this study, can be an efficient instru-ment in fields which need scrutinizing analyses. Industrial productivity analysis of a country is one of such fields. This study applies an instrument developed based on the DEA approach for measuring the industrial productivity of the country. The results obtained, may pave the path for policy-making for economic growth in such a way that enables an effective resources allocation. The applied instrument is a weighted additive model, for which a sufficient number of yearly pe-riods are considered as decision making units (DMUs). The weights included in the model are driven by executing an analytical hierarchy process. After running the model the results demon-strate excesses and deficits in each DMU which can illuminate not only the past performance but also help to plan for the future policies.

One of the primary concerns in most decision making problems is the uncertainty associated with the input parameters. The existence of uncertainty may lead to some unrealistic results, which may make the final decision even more difficult. This paper presents an application of robust optimization technique to a recently developed model named Best-Worst method. The resulted robust approach is formulated as a linear programming where it can be solved using any commercial software package. The proposed model has been implemented on several instances which exist in the literature and the preliminary results have indicated that a small perturbation may influence the final ranking, significantly.

Inappropriate use of gravity and lateral load-bearing system and the use of inappropriate materials may increase in weight of the structure. Thus, we see an increase in gravity and lateral forces and consequently the beam and column dimensions of elements increase. In this paper, by taking several samples of buildings with steel frames and number of different floors and use of different materials as well as various gravity and lateral load-bearing systems this issue was investigated. It was observed that by the use of steel bracing system in both directions of buildings with steel frames; each different load-bearing results in minimum weight loading per unit surface of the skeleton of structure. It was also observed more effect of lightweight construction by increasing the number of floors for all lateral load-bearing systems. Effects of lightweight construction for different lateral load-bearing systems was investigated and we observed that the effects of lightweight construction commonly used for buildings with moment frame system in both directions were more than the rest of the buildings with lateral load-bearing systems.

In this paper, the first and second stage compressor blades of a gas turbine were studied by the experimental and numerical modal analyses. At first, the geometric models of these blades were generated by the 3D scanner and then the mode shapes and the natural frequencies of each blade were extracted by a series of numerical modal analyses. The numerical results were compared with the data obtained from the experimental modal analysis and the validity and accuracy of the developed numerical models were confirmed. Unlike most studies that use fixed-free boundary condition for performing a modal analysis, this objective was pursued by applying a free-free boundary condition. This study also investigated the effect of using wax or glue for mounting the accelerometer on the blade by assessing the FRF curves obtained from the modal tests in the frequency range of 0-10000 Hz. The sensitivity of the test results to applying free-free boundary condition, the number of accelerometers and their positions were investigated by defining three modal test configurations. The results obtained by these test configurations were compared with the results of numerical analyses and finally, the best configuration for the modal test of the studied compressor blade was determined.

The purpose of this paper is developing a method to choose an appropriate Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) using Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MADM) for a dairy company. Among different methods, the grey group TOPSIS and fuzzy group VIKOR methods were selected. TOPSIS is a Technique for order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution and VIKOR technique is a method based on compromise programming. The data in this article were gathered using the interviews with the company’s managers and elites in the field of maintenance. Then, out of five types of maintenance software, the best ones were selected using these two techniques and finally the results were compared with each other. In the selection process, 13 sub-criteria were introduced under 5 main criteria. These criteria were selected out of a huge number of criteria using the studies of others and by consulting with the company’s managers and experts. We have tried to make the choices in a way that the majority of aspects could be considered. This paper helps the maintenance managers in decision-making related to choosing the CMMS software in uncertainty environment. Using two different fuzzy and grey approaches and comparing the results can lead to appropriate selection and improve the confidence in decision-making. Maintenance planning issues are among the important issues in industrial production systems. Maintenance systems have basically made remarkable progress in recent years. The increase of companies’ competitive pressure on the one hand and the close relationship between maintenance activities and companies’ core activities, on the other hand, have encouraged companies to use the software in order to manage their maintenance activities.

According to connoisseurs, cultural system is encountering a fully new space in future decades and cultural indicators will be exposed by some dangers; for the same reason, cultural observation activities in management dialogue of Iran are emphasized; the concept of “observation” in Iran is facing with challenges including being far from the concepts of futures studies and the focus on “cultural indicators monitoring” while cultural engineering needs foresight and identification of affecting progressive and deterring factors on the culture. The present study aims at providing alternatives to design an observation system by considering the monitoring and scanning simultaneously to bring out strategic and futurist vision for cultural organizations. To this end, the solution space and morphological field of observation (parameters and values) by using MA/Carma Viewer software package is designed based on the literature review and forming a five-member expert group and specialized conversations. Upon Internal Consistency Assessment of parameters and by considering some values as drivers, Parameters Activity Check was conducted to study the reactions by other parameters and values. After sense-making and proper understanding of the model behavior, an Inference and “What-If” model were devised; some configurations were studied and provided in order to aware a part of proper alternatives for designing a cultural observation system (two scenarios). Scenario selection is different due to contingencies and conditions of executing the process as well as the users’ needs and goals in cultural observation system and cultural organizations can make decisions and design detailed observation systems by using morphological models, solution space and alternatives provided in the present study and depended on their goals and needs.

This paper presents a new multi-objective model for a vehicle routing problem under a stochastic uncertainty. It considers traffic point as an inflection point to deal with the arrival time of vehicles. It aims to minimize the total transportation cost, traffic pollution, customer dissatisfaction and maximizes the reliability of vehicles. Moreover, resiliency factors are included in the model to increase the flexibility of the system and decrease the possible losses that may impose on the system. Due to the NP-hardness of the presented model, a meta-heuristic algorithm, namely Simulated Annealing (SA) is developed. Furthermore, a number of sensitivity analyses are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model. Lastly, the foregoing meta-heuristic is compared with GAMS, in which the computational results demonstrate an acceptable performance of the proposed SA.

Search for lost or hidden things is a very interesting and complicated issue. This problem concentrates on the study of how to exploit resources to discover a target with unknown location. On the other hand, search problem may be formulated as a difficult decision problem because it is affected by various crucial decision factors such as search cost, search time, the probability of discovering, etc. In this paper, a new multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach on the basis of best-worst method (BWM) and simple additive weighting (SAW) is suggested to rank potential locations of lost or hidden targets. BWM is a novel subjective weighting technique and compared to the most common subjective method, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), requires fewer comparisons and gives more trustworthy outcomes. In this paper, BWM is used to gain the criteria weights and SAW is employed to rank the locations regarding the decision factors. This study demonstrates that BWM is easier and works better than AHP, also perfect agreement in the results of COPRAS, TOPSIS and SAW is observed. The suggested approach is very easy as well as flexible and provides an efficient method which can be developed to tackle other decision problems.

Tourism industry is one of the most important parts of economic development. It can create job either directly or through stimulating other economic sectors. Therefore, it is important for policy makers to determine the best places with good potentials for tourism development. Fars province has been the center of civilization and the origin of the Iranian literature and mysticism celebrities and could be a potential investment of tourism. However, this province does not have the infrastructure required to accommodate tourists, especially during holiday seasons. This study ranks different cities located in the Fras province having the necessary potential for investment in the tourism sector by using the numerical taxonomy in terms of 12 indicators. The research population includes 29 cities in this province based on the devision of 2016. The necessary data are collected from Directorate General of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism in Fars province. It is found that the cities of Shiraz, Marvdasht, Firouzabad, Sepidan, and Kazerun were the best cities for tourism investment, respectively.