A multicriteria facility location model for municipal solid waste management in North Greece

Up to 2002, Hellenic Solid Waste Management (SWM) policy specified that each of the country’s 54 prefectural governments plan its own SWM system. After 2002, this authority was shifted to the country’s 13 regions entirely. In this paper, we compare and contrast regional and prefectural SWM planning in Central Macedonia. To design the prefectural plan, we assume that each prefecture must be self-sufficient, and we locate waste facilities in each prefecture. In contrast, in the regional plan, we assume cooperation between prefectures and locate waste facilities to serve the entire region. We present a new multicriteria mixed-integer linear programming model to solve the location–allocation problem for municipal SWM at the regional level. We apply the lexicographic minimax approach to obtain a “fair” nondominated solution, a solution with all normalized objectives as equal to one another as possible. A solution to the model consists of locations and technologies for transfer stations, material recovery facilities, incinerators and sanitary landfills, as well as the waste flow between these locations.     

Effect of Li2CO3 on formation temperature of hBN by modified O'Connor model

This study is interested in the effect of lithium carbonate on the formation of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) by means of the available experimental methods including TGA, XRD, FTIR, SEM and HR‐TEM. hBN samples were synthesized at the 1450 °C with different molar ratios of lithium carbonate by modified O'Connor routine. The crystalline hBN formation tended to improve with the increment of the Li₂CO₃ concentration level (especially after more 20 %). The dopant quantity decreased the residual stresses due to the presence of possible relaxation mechanisms along with the nanocrystal structure, even favored by XRD experimental findings regarding the enhancement of crystal plane alignments, crystallite sizes and lattice parameters. As for the FTIR surveys, the Li₂CO₃ foreign impurities strengthened more and more the covalent bonds between boron and nitrogen atoms. At the same time, the samples with 40 % lithium carbonate were annealed at the varied temperatures of 1000, 1150, 1300 and 1450 °C to determine the optimum annealing temperature. The XRD+FTIR investigations indicated that the degree of hexagonality improved with the increased annealing temperature. Similarly, the surface morphology confirmed not only the formation of regularity and flaky hexagonal BN structures, but also the strengthening of covalent bonds between the atoms.     

Thermal computations of temperature distribution and bulb heat transfer in an automobile headlamp

In this study, experimental and numerical analysis was performed to define thermal deformation inside the head lamp because of usage plastic materials and thermal loads. Buoyancy, radiation and conjugate effects were considered. Velocity and temperature distributions were obtained and possible hot points and condense regions can be determined. Nusselt number distribution on cylindrical bulb were computed and compared with literature. Relatively important heat transfer increase in natural convection was found.     

Hyperon production in pp interactions at √s = 53 and 62 GeV

Inclusive measurements of Λ⁰, $\text{Λ}$⁰, Ξ^?, Σ(1385)^±) production in the forward direction at the CERN intersecting storage rings are presented. A signal for simulataneous Λ⁰$\text{Λ}$⁰ production is also observed with total $\text{x > 0.6, 2.3 < M}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>\Lambda </mtext><mtext>\Lambda </mtext>}}\text{< 2.5}\text{GeV}$ and with a cross section of (1.7 ± 0.2) μb.     

Flow injection determination of catechol based on polypyrrole–carbon nanotube–tyrosinase biocomposite detector

A flow injection catechol biosensor based on tyrosinase entrapped in carbon nanotube modified polypyrrole biocomposite film on a glassy carbon surface has been developed. Amperometric response was measured as a function of concentration of catechol, at a fixed bias voltage of −50 mV at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. The proposed biosensor exhibited impressive analytical performance such as a linear range between 3 and 50 μM, a short response time (10 s), a detection limit of 0.671 μM and an excellent operational (with a relative standard deviation of 0.54%) and long-term stability (85% remained after 10th week). A comparison of the analytical parameters of the developed biosensor with polypyrrole/tyrosinase film electrode was performed in the study. CNT was shown to enhance the electron transfer between the electrode and enzyme and capable to carry higher bioactivity owing to its intensified surface area.     

An integrated approach for scheduling health care activities in a hospital

To effectively utilise hospital beds, operating rooms (OR) and other treatment spaces, it is necessary to precisely plan patient admissions and treatments in advance. As patient treatment and recovery times are unequal and uncertain, this is not easy. In response, a sophisticated flexible job-shop scheduling (FJSS) model is introduced, whereby patients, beds, hospital wards and health care activities are respectively treated as jobs, single machines, parallel machines and operations. Our approach is novel because an entire hospital is describable and schedulable in one integrated approach. The scheduling model can be used to recompute timings after deviations, delays, postponements and cancellations. It also includes advanced conditions such as activity and machine setup times, transfer times between activities, blocking limitations and no wait conditions, timing and occupancy restrictions, buffering for robustness, fixed activities and sequences, release times and strict deadlines. To solve the FJSS problem, constructive algorithms and hybrid meta-heuristics have been developed. Our numerical testing shows that the proposed solution techniques are capable of solving problems of real world size. This outcome further highlights the value of the scheduling model and its potential for integration into actual hospital information systems.     

Quinone-amine polymers. XII. Synthesis and characterization of novel polymers from 2-phenylbenzoquinone and aliphatic diamines

In order to study the effect of the presence of phenyl groups in poly (amino-quinone) (PAQ) polymers, several novel poly(amino-2-phenylbenzoquinone) (PhPAQ) polymers have been prepared from 2-phenylbenzoquinone and aliphatic diamines, such as 1,6-diaminohexane, 1,8-diaminooctane, 1,12-diaminodod+++++, and 1,4-diaminocyclohexane. Prior to the polymerization, 2-phenylbenzoquinone was generated in situ from 2-phenylhydroquinone in the presence of calcium hypochlorite as the oxidizing agent in dichloromethane. All of the polymers synthesized have been characterized with respect to their corresponding model compounds. It was also found that unlike their analogous PAQ polymers, PhPAQ polymers were highly soluble in many common organic solvents because of the presence of phenyl groups in their polymer backbone. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Structural and fluorescence properties of phenolphthalein bridged cyclotriphosphazatrienes

This study dealt with the reactions of hexachlorocyclotriphosphazatriene, N₃P₃Cl₆ (trimer) (1) with phenolphthalein (2) to give the phenolphthalein bridged compounds 3, 4 and 5. The phenolphthalein bridged cyclotriphosphazatriene derivatives are reported for the first time. The new compounds (3–5) are characterized by elemental analysis, mass spectrometry, UV–vis, FT-IR, ¹H, ³¹P NMR and fluorescence spectroscopy. The more bridged phenolphthalein groups show the higher intensity of the absorption bands in the UV–vis spectra. Fluorescence spectrum of compound 3 shows a small band in the lower spectral range, while the spectra of compounds 4 and 5 show more intense and a band in higher spectral range.